Make your Choice [0]
[Please choose your gender.]
Huh?
[Please choose your gender.]
I could not say if my eyes were open or closed, much less where I was. It was more of a concept, a perception of what was being 'said' to me inside my head, the letters glowing with their own purple-ish light.
[PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR GENDER.]
It was as if the longer I took to make a choice, the more impatience the letters became—or whatever it was that was communicating with me. I had to shift my focus, as if I was scrolling through my cell phone, in order to see the option. Although it was pretty clear to me what they were going to be.
[Male]
[Female]
[Other]
So I get to choose, huh?
But what I was choosing for? The more time I spent in that space—which was at the same time dark and bright, small and spacious, cold and warm—the more confused I got. Yet at the same time, it was as if I could not think about things too much, as if my mind was being restricted, my own thoughts contained.
[MALE]
[FEMALE]
[OTHER]
Well, there was no doubt what I was going to choose. There could be only one option, as long as it concerned me. I imagine myself touching it, the eerie glow of those letters making my heart race. I felt that word enveloping my entire being, making the blood inside my veins run and course through my body as if until that moment I was dead and that was the breath of life I yearned for.
Then a new sentence appeared.
[Choose Your Destiny.]
My
destiny
? Destiny of
what
?
I didn't want to make that kind of choice; why
should
I? Sure, it was better than someone else forcing me into something, but the thought of choosing that now…felt wrong. Almost dangerous—
[CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY.]
The letters' glow intensified, blinking repeatedly as if to urge me. With a tightness around my heart, I focused on the options.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
What the actual f—
What did that even mean?! I had to choose a number for my destiny? This was starting to feel less like a dream and more like a joke.
[CHOOSE YOUR—]
I pressed a random number, irritated, a gush of wind blowing in my face a second later. My head began to hurt, a pressure in all directions as it got harder to see. Although I was unsure if I was actually seeing those things. It was unreal—no, it was a disruption. Something that should not belong there, a place
I
didn't belong.
[Now]
[Choose Your Fate.]
For some reason, I knew that was the last thing I was obligated to choose, and even though I felt relieved deep down, there was a sense of dread spreading within me. Whatever it was that I was being forced to choose…
It was not something good.
Out of nowhere, fourteen cards jumped in front of me—the cards half of my side. Their covers were made of silver with symbols that kept merging and swirling, forming drawings that almost took my breath away. Of all those cards, two stood out to me even though I could not see what they contained. One at each end.
Right or left.
[CHOOSE YOUR FATE.]
The pressure in my head increased.
[CHOOSE YOUR FATE.]
The card knew I had chosen it even before I did, floating towards me. It shrunk until it landed on my palm with its face down. The card was hot, as if it was made of iron that had just left a furnace, however my skin did not burn. There was a power emanating from it, like an absolute force that would compel me to do its bidding the moment I turned it. For the first time since this weird dream state started, I was truly afraid. But before I could think of running away, not even sure where I would run to or from what I was running from, my hand flipped the card on its own as if it was possessed.
I looked at the card—
Then everything disappeared.
Make Your Choice [1]
The ground was cold yet my skin burned as if I had been facing the sun for days. Even after I opened my eyes all I could see was darkness, my heart racing in response to the fear of the unknown that awaited me.
Where is this place?
As I raised myself, the first thing I did was touch my chest as a desperate thought popped into my head. I let out
a sigh, joy and relief spreading within my body as I felt my hard, flat chest.
Whatever had spoken to me before, it didn't mess up—that should count for something.
I tried to spread my arms, but I was met with walls surrounding me in every direction. If they were trying to scare or traumatize me, they quite missed their mark. I wasn't claustrophobic—they would've better odds trying to bury me alive. That shit would be terrifying. Which led me to another question; was there only me in that place?
Wherever that place was.
[Please state your name.]
Oh, look at that. I was not alone anymore, that's touching. Maybe that thing was listening to me.
The purple glow that irradiated from the letters gave me a good notion of the space I was in; it was quite small. I could stand without problems, but it was quite constricting.
Something was not really fond of me moving in the space, apparently. And I got to choose my name as well? As in, a brand new name? Well, that opened up some doors.
[Please state your name.]
"Yea, yea, working on it." Those letters could be quite annoying. However, that was a golden opportunity—I hated my old name. Well, not all of it, but still I had to change it.
I was not sure if I was dreaming, if I had died, or was just being punished by some strange being and to be honest, I didn't care. Whatever that was, it was giving me more freedom than I've had in my entire life.
[PLEASE STATE YOUR-]
"For crying out lou—Eunwoo, Park Eunwoo! Can you shut up now?" My new name appeared in front of me, even though I didn't have enough time to pick a better one.
Still, Eunwoo… It didn't sound bad, right? It had a nice ring to it, the more I said it in my head. For a rushed response, it could've been worse.
At that moment, a white screen appeared on one of the walls. It took almost ten seconds for the screen to change, a static noise echoing in that tiny space before texts started to pop up.
[You have been given a chance to start anew. A chance to be one of the hands that will shape a new World.]
Now,
that
was interesting.
[As of now, your Destiny shall be molded by you alone. If you wish to survive and see the new Creation, you must abide by the rules and survive each Trial given to you by the Benefactors.]
[Your new life is not guaranteed.]
[From this point forward, the choices and actions made by you will define whether you deserve this life or not.]
I wanted to hit a pause button, have some time to process what I was reading. I was trying to force my mind to keep focus, gather all that information, and find its logic—its reasoning. If that was a dream, I would've woken up by that point—I was no stranger to lucid dreams.
Yet the more time passed, the more I realized what was happening in front of me was real. Whatever those letters were, there had to be some force or being behind them. Like a system from a video game, an algorithm that determined who passed and who failed, a code that made sure the game ran as intended.
Ha… I had to be losing my mind. What, was I inside a novel or something? Those kinds of stories had always been popular in Korea, I had lots of friends who wouldn't shut up about them whenever a new chapter was released.
But until yesterday I was surrounded by buildings, cars, and civilization. I had no recollection of the past days, so how come I was stuck in a small cubicle answering some floating letters?
I didn't care what the explanation was: rebirth, magic portals, an apocalypse, an alien invasion—all I wanted was an answer.
[This is an evaluation to test your heart. To see what your Truth is and where your Soul leans toward.]
[Remember these words: There are no right answers.]
Great, why wouldn't I love some evasive, interpretative questions on this super-important quiz? It was not as if there was anything at stake.
[You must abide by the following rules:]
1. You must make a choice
2. You will be evaluated by the morality and ethics of your choices
3. You only have 30 seconds to answer each question
4. If by the end of the evaluation, you have not reached a minimum amount of points, you lose
5. New rules will be added in later stages
I took a deep breath, my head starting to hurt. I managed to read the rules a couple more times before the letters disappeared, my mind racing as it tried to guess and imagine what would appear next on the screen. I had a feeling that if I wished to protect my life as Park Eun-Woo, I had to choose right.
I had to make the choices that would not only guarantee my future but my new reality. The meaning of this new Creation and the shape of a new World, I would think about those later; they were not important right now.
This test was not about that. If my current situation was truly like those fantasy novels, then I would probably have more opportunities to learn about those things at another time.
But damn, thirty seconds? This thing was only giving me half a minute to make choices that would basically dictate my future as Eunwoo.
[New Self Park Eunwoo, you shall be the sole bearer of the consequences created through your actions. Do you accept the rules?]
A shiver ran down my spine. "Yes, I accept."
The screen's glow intensified, a warmth spreading through my skin. Somewhere around my chest, I could feel something binding me, as if I had just signed a contract with my heart and soul.
I could hear bells and low whistles as the screen turned a dark purple for a few seconds before clearing again, letters appearing alongside a small clock in the top right corner. It was frozen at '00:30'.
[Stage 1#]
When the final texts filled the screen, I began to laugh. Because that was the only thing I could do apart from crying, the only thing I could do in order to try to keep the fear away. Suddenly, thirty seconds were less than ideal.
[A train is heading toward two tracks. On the right track are your sister Hana and your best friend Hyeon.]
It was then that I realized thirty seconds were, perhaps, not enough.
[On the left track there is a family with two small children.]
[Will you save the family?]
Not enough at all.
Make Your Choice [2]
[29]
[28]
[27]
[26]
[…]
The moment I finished reading, the countdown started. 'There is no right answer'; math disagreed with that, completely.
If I chose to adhere to logic, my choice was obvious. I should save the family. Not only there were four people, but there were children—both Hana and Hyeon were grown adults, and Hyeon was almost thirty.
But it was
Hana
. It was
Hyeon
. The only people in the world who had listened to me when I needed it, who gave me their support, helped me when I was at my lowest point. How could I ever condemn them?
[16]
[15]
[14]
But the children, how young were they—six years old? Five? Two? Would I really choose to save my sister and my friend and let two innocent, hopeless children die?
[9]
[8]
[7]
No, I shouldn't be thinking that. This was nothing but a test; it was not real. If they wanted to make it more dramatic, if that system wanted to push me to the edge, it would've shown me the train and the tracks, but there wasn't even a photo of them. It was only a question, a hypothetical and ethical question.
Who should I save?
[3]
[2]
[1]
"Yes, I will save the family." The words rushed out of my mouth, as I let go a breath I didn't even know I was holding.
The clock stopped, the letters fading into the white screen and all I could hear during that small break was the sound of my own heart.
Why was I so desperate when that was only the first stage? It would likely get harder with each stage I cleared. I shouldn't let emotions affect me that way.
Don't be stupid, Eunwoo.
I had to keep my focus. I only had thirty seconds to answer each scenario, and I could lose my new life as Park Eunwoo if I messed up.
And this was not something I could lose—not anymore. I had to be smart about it; wasn't Hana always so happy and eager to talk about those guys? Kant, Plato, Hume, she spent years abroad majoring in Social Studies or something alike.
She would always call me at night to talk about all the books she was reading, all the classes she was attending—why couldn't I remember anything?
Because things were not good after she left
That voice inside my head was not from Eunwoo. It was from the old me, a person who carried everything I loathed and lacked everything I needed.
Someone I never wanted to see again, a "me" that was better off dead and forgotten.
Yet it was right.
When Hana left… Things stopped being okay—they stopped being bearable.
[Stage 2#]
The new letters began to appear, my heart calmer, my mind more focused. That time, I was ready.
[A train is heading toward three tracks. On the right track are all of your life savings and possessions.]
[On the left track there are five strangers while in the middle there is one old woman.]
[Will you sacrifice your possessions to save the old woman's life?]
A smile appeared on my lips—that system was quite the snob one. It didn't even consider the chance of someone taking the left track, as if that option should not even exist.
It was all about the old woman and my money. But somewhere deep inside my mind, I kept wondering why it did even bother to put that third option.
"Yes." The clock was not even on twenty-five seconds when I answered, the text disappearing almost instantly.
But it was strange. The clock was the only thing that remained on the screen, without stopping the countdown. The new stage only appeared a few moments after the thirty seconds were up.
That's odd… Did I have to wait for someone else right then?
[Stage 3#]
After that, I kept completing the stages without any problems. Although there were some situations quite controversial, most cases were obvious which option was the 'right' one. Stage 4#, Stage 5#, Stage 6#—as I progressed and answered each scenario, the more it looked like I was not the only one being evaluated.
Sometimes I would have to wait until all the time had run out, and others would clear out before the clock reached 00:20. It was almost too random.
It reminded me of online games where you had to wait for it to find matches, and the match would only start after all players had accepted.
In a way, that made sense. It would be quite unusual if I was the only person transported to this place, the only person being given that opportunity.
I knew myself well enough to be certain—I was not that special. There was nothing about me that was unique or spectacular in any way, I was mediocre in every aspect of my life.
After high school, I took the CSAT.
I graduated from an average college, got a boring office job. I didn't even remember my major's name, nor which company it was.
At some point, Hana left to study abroad. I cannot remember our last day together—maybe there wasn't one.
I stayed for three years in that company until I got fired. After that, I did not search for another job.
Then, I started working as a part-timer in a convenience store. It was bad most days, but I loved it when it rained. The world got quieter, somehow, leaving me to my own thoughts; my mind was the only place where I felt safe and free.
When Hana came back, I didn't even visit. Actually, I never even gave her my new address or asked for hers. I wish I could say I was a great, selfless person, yet deep down I resented her—even when I knew I had no right to.
And just like that, pieces of my life began to flash in my mind. Moments I would rather burn and hide the ashes so I would never have to look at them again.
But as I recalled those moments, it became clearer to me how insignificant and mundane my life had been. How my existence was bland and unimportant to the world.
Then why had I been chosen? Why give me a chance to become Park Eunwoo? Had someone been listening to my prayers and pleas all those years and finally took pity on me? Or had I been simply too lucky for my own good?
In either case, I would not complain.
I would live my new life as Park Eunwoo happily. I would become someone who could create a mark in the world, someone who could change things.
I recalled the words that had appeared before, 'the hands that will help shape a new World'. Yeah, perhaps I would do just that.
But then, a new stage started.
[Stage 13#]
As the new phrases appeared, I cursed my own stupidity for forgetting one of the most important rules.
[A new rule has been added.]
I cursed my own pretentiousness for forgetting one of the most important things regarding those fantasy stories.
[Those who chose the less-voted option will be eliminated.]
I cursed my selective memory for I had forgotten that in those stories, "winning and losing" meant "life and death".
[The time limit has been reduced to 25 seconds.]
Another screen lit up on my side, showing a panoramic view from above.
There was this giant arena filled with small cubicles, side by side. I did not even have to guess what each cubicle meant.
I was not choosing based on what was ethical to me anymore.
I was choosing what was the most acceptable choice for all those people.