𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 ♛ 𝐥𝐦𝐤

♛ 29

Mark stared at the beautiful flowers in front of him. He knew that he needs to leave soon, but his breath was completely taken away at that moment.

He doesn't feel empty. in fact, what he's feeling is much like a cup of tea. The cup is still filled with enough tea, not full, but not empty. The only thing that's wrong with it is that it's no longer hot— it's cold. Just like a tea that has lost its warmth, its delicacy. 

He stared at the headstone in front of him, his thoughts swimming in the middle of the ocean inside his mind. He wondered what had gone wrong. 

Was it him? Was it because he was too late? Or was it because he had already given up?

He never knew and his gut tells him that he'll never find out why.

Mark let out the breath that he held on for a while, glancing at the name written on the headstone. Sometimes he wishes that the name would change, but he knew it will never happen. What's done is done. 

"I'll go now, sorry it took me way too long to come back here," he turned around. "I'll be back soon, if I'm still alive of course."

He never got the chance to find the meaning of life, it's already meaningless to him.

─⊹⊱☆⊰⊹─

Heeseung shuts his eyes, feeling the syringe pierce through his skin. He was chosen to play the game today, and he went for oblivion— the game of intelligence and wit. 

He felt the electric rush from the drug, he opened his eyes, looking at the new and made up reality. He looked around, noticing that he's in the library his old house.

He grabbed a random book from the bookshelf, dragging his fingers across the surface. It was rough and the corners had already turned yellow, which means it's an old book.

He put the book back on its place before glancing at the watch on his hand. Time management is one of the key points in this game, because once the time is up, a new reality will form. The players needs to manage their time properly and look for clues as thorough as they can.

He turned around, looking at the huge window. The curtains were shut halfway, lighting the room dimly. He heard a sound from the door as it opened, only to see his younger self entering the library before taking a seat, reading a book peacefully.

He closed his eyes again, finding himself in a different place.

It's still peaceful, yet in a different way. Before he felt calm and relaxed, probably because of the ambience of the library. But now, it's vacant and somber.

He recognized this place, he's been here a few times before. It's the Midnight Café. 

Everyone in the café was reticent, they were all just minding their own business. There wasn't that many people around, only a few men dressed in all black suit and a couple of other men with similar clothing.

He looked around, spotting his brother sitting with his friend, Yeonjun. Mark was the one who introduced him to this place, it was and until now remains as his favorite place to go. 

They were talking about something, the expressions on their faces showed that they're both not worried about anything. But despite that, they don't look like they're happy either. They were simply drinking together as a way to let time pass by.

He looked at the calendar in front of him, the date written on the calendar was 'April 6, 2019'.

Two years ago.

He turned to look at his brother again, making an eye contact with Yeonjun. His eyes flashed a look he couldn't decipher, it was as if his soul was completely empty.

Closing his eyes once more, he found himself being in a different place again. He's now in the middle of the forest and it was snowing. The cold air brushed through his skin as he shivered, rubbing his hands to gain warmth.

He saw himself again, wearing a thick, fury, long red coat. This is the forest next to his school in Russia, the place where he used to train archery.

He was in fact one of the best students in archery, however he didn't recall practicing archery in the middle of the freezing winter. 

Heeseung turned around, spotting the building of his school from afar. The paramnesia is starting to get to him, everything feels so surreal yet he did recall some of these memory pieces.

The arrow then went through his body, hitting the man behind him. He didn't even realize there was a man behind him until his other self hit him with his arrow.

His time was up. He looked down, staring at the three buttons on his smart watch, debating which number to choose.

Looking back at the huge castle-like building away from him, he took a deep breath before pressing the number two, the second memory.

The place then changed again, he's back in the empty white room he was in originally.

"Game end."

A man came in, injecting a solution to stop the paramnesia effect. 

He won the first place.

He pursed his lips, remembering what the second memory was- the fake memory. It's odd how to him it felt like it was the most real and vivid, yet it's fake one. Shoving his hands inside his pocket, he then proceed to walk back to exit the game area.

For the first time in his life, he realized that his life is full of paradox.

so if u don't understand how this game works (aka oblivion) it's basically like a game of false reality caused by paramnesia. the players will get injected by a 'drug' to make them experience temporary paramnesia, which will lead to them being in a few realities (in this game it's three). there's a time limit to each reality and once the time ends, it changes to a new reality. the players will then have to guess which one is real or based on real life events and which one is fake.

in heeseung's case, the second memory is the fake memory which means that never happened before.