After wandering around for a few minutes without getting anywhere, Adam realized there were lots of items scattered around. It felt like a gambling carnival — machines with coins slots, some even had donuts, sourdough buns, or hotdogs trapped inside spinning glass globes.
Feeling the hunger gnawing at me — a constant hunger I just couldn't shake — I rolled a few coins into one of the machines.
I pressed some buttons, then pulled the lever...
[TRY AGAIN]
A digital sign flashed, telling me I'd failed. After a few tries, frustration built up. The clerk's surprised expression caught my eye.
Nervously, they warned, "Don't cause any disturbances in the timeout room, please. Otherwise, there will be consequences."
"What the heck is this game?" I sighed. "This has got to be rigged. I put in four coins and failed every time... and I'm starving."
Adam wandered through the area—there were merchants, bartenders, and various shops, all with signs indicating you needed coins to buy anything.
I approached a merchant and asked, "Hey, how do I buy anything in this place?"
The merchant, a strange figure with a dangling blue flame rose in his hair and spiraling colorful eyes that were hard to look at, crossed his arms flatly. "Everything here can be bought with coins. And how do you get those coins, you ask?"
"Well, of course, by signing up for events or winning coins on the gambling machines."
I nodded, thinking it over. "Okay, thanks."
As I walked away, I noticed a fountain nearby. Above it, a boy in a black suit and a large comical hat looked at me, smiling, but pretending to ignore me.
I sighed. He's probably enjoying this way too much.
Grabbing a nearby statue, I looked around at the carnival points and went all-in, feeding my remaining coins into slot machines and games. But every game was either way too hard — like dungeon defense or trivia questions about this world that I had no clue about — or obviously rigged, like the card games.
I eventually collapsed onto the ground, defeated and broke.
Checking my system screen for items, I saw:
[Timeout coin — 1 CP]
I sighed again. There was no way I was going to spend my precious creation points on that.
Kneeling, exhausted and still hungry, I looked up at the bulletin board, where signs advertised upcoming events.
The boy from before approached me. "There's going to be a creation music event tomorrow, which is..." Suddenly, some comically colorful font popped up, like a mix of Sans and Super Mario style: [ORCHESTRA MAKING MUSIC!!!]
As if whoever named it didn't have a clue how to write a title.
Minori explained, "Basically, you're given time to create a piece of music. Then it will be performed by an orchestra, and you get to be the conductor!"
Adam blinked. "What? -_- What even is happening?"
Suddenly, I was lifted off the ground by some invisible force.
"We can't have our guest tired, can we?" Minori chuckled. "Don't worry — I'm not that cruel. There's always some food around for total noobs who can't win a single game. It's in your designated room."
"Its always fun to be meet with outside people"
Adam: Why, arent there so many people around here? you can talk to...
Minori: Sigh, they arent alive... I wish... But they arent alive, i have to manually create some interacting character, there appearance and everything...
"But what im trying to say is, there dead... But you arent"
Before I knew it, I was flung into a red room with a pool-like vibe. Faces of strangers appeared on many doors, walking around. Then I saw one door with my own face on it.
I stepped inside.