Each muscle of my body aches under the pain of effort. I had not moved upward for the past 2 days and now I am trying to stand up. The information earlier is scribed within my brain, as if it was something that I studied repeatedly. It mentions an object that is required and I suspect that it is the tablet. From my arrival at this desert until now, this tablet has been the only other thing around, my only one companion in this place.

  “Hello little one, I’ve looked at you for some time now. None others has found me so soon.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  -I’ve transported to this place after my body died in a strange way. I’ve seen you from the very beginning, yet could you be what I’m supposed to look for?

  “Aww yes yes! But the update is not ready. That’s tough, you bully. You were not supposed to find me so quickly. Whatever, we can proceed. In a few days, this Terra will go to sleep. It is simply bored to DEATH because you humans stopped exploring! Your universe was much stronger when you guys were actually trying. Most universes are actually just a single huge big mass, one planet and perhaps a Sun or two. Terra made a whole damn Milky Way and barely anybody cares. I’ve heard that a few weeks ago, Explorer 1 exploded somewhere and Terra could not deal with it, emotionally. It was the nail in the coffin. The result is that most of humanity is now dead and most of you will never locate their totem of fate like you did. That scores you a Sice on you first die by the way. You’ll do just fine. A Sice means that the Emergency Council will spare more than 6 tons of karma to save you. Anyway let’s go elsewhere.”

  As the stone tablet finishes talking, the air begins to vibrate and I’m too weak to resist it. In a motion of falling on my butt, my bottom appears to land on a chair instead of the ground and that chair is just one of many. The place looks like a graduation ceremony. There are 5 rows of chairs extending to my left and right. My sight is insufficient to see where they stop in the distance but all those chairs have one thing in common : empty. I’m alone.

  “Ahem, little one. We’re way early but I finished the update just now. Your Sice has been registered and authorized, CONGRATULATION BOY. A Sice is not 1 out of 6, it’s more like 1 out of 50. It shouldn’t be authorized again for the Dice of fate again tomorrow. Some of the others will reach this place today and seize that chance, then that’s it. Right now you have a good chance at securing a life after this. I’m allowed to distribute you this 2nd cube and explain it to you. It’s simple, you can’t leave this place until you fuse your soul with it. Once you do, well that cube is stronnnnng. It’ll rip a part of your very essence and it’ll be given back to Terra. The bigger that essence, the bigger the compensation from the Emergency Council will be. Little one, time is stopped in this place. You won’t decay as long as you sit on this special chair, so take a few days and challenge the cube slowly.