CHAPTER 1 | Minesweeper
TW Explosions ///
As the video flickers to life on your bracelet you see Akash sitting alone in a dimly lit hallway. As they step forward through the hallway eventually they reach a large, open room resembling that of an empty warehouse. The floor stretches on for dozens of meters in all directions, though the full shape of the room is more of a rectangle, stretching forward like a massive hallway. Rather than a cold, cement or metal flooring the room appears to be covered in some sort of dirt or sand.
As Akash steps out into the massive room they look at their bracelet. The video on your own bracelet cuts to a short explanation video that you can only assume they are also watching on their own bracelet. The video demonstrates that the whole sand covered room is broken up into several squares of land, each designated by small lines drawn in the sand. Some of the squares of land will have landmines in them that will instantly detonate if you are to step foot in them. It is up to Akash to navigate their way through the room without setting off any of the landmines. In order to do that, a new special app has been added to their bracelet which shows how many landmines are nearby the squares of land they have already stepped on. Any landmines there next to the space of land they have already stepped on, whether it be vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, a new number will show up on that square in their app. It’s essentially a combination of a maze and the hit time waster Minesweeper.
They hesitantly step forward onto the first square and… Of course it isn’t armed, that would be completely unfair. They look down at their bracelet to see how many bombs are in nearby squares. The answer: 1. With 5 different squares around them to choose to move to next, that essentially gives them a 20% chance of picking the wrong square. It’s not terrible odds, but could you blame them for being a bit nervou? They ambitiously decide to walk forward towards the square directly in front of them, moving themself closer to the end of the room. They give a quick sigh of relief when the square doesn’t detonate. Checking their bracelet they see that this square only has 1 landmine nearby as well, meaning it’s mostly like the same landmine the other square was nearby. This essentially guarantees that moving the next square forward will have no consequences.
They continue this for some time, slowly making their way across the large room, navigating around the various landmines with ease. However once they get to around halfway through the room a new problem arises. A strange sound can be heard coming from the hallway that they had originally came from. It almost sounds like a… hee haw.
Suddenly a mechanical donkey steps out into the giant room, slowly marching forward on its rudimentary robotic legs. Every few steps the donkey lets out another “hee haw” sound as if to mimic that of the sound a real life donkey might make. Immediately this poses a problem for Akash because the mechanical donkey doesn’t appear to be moving in any sort of tactical way, rather it seems to just head in a beeline forward. If they were to let the donkey keep moving without stopping it, it would eventually step onto one of the landmines which could potentially set off a chain reaction that would blow the whole room sky high.
They quickly make their way back to the start of the landmine maze, making sure not to step on any of the squares that they had marked as likely containing a landmine, and reach for the donkey before it can step onto the next square. They lift the donkey up and begin carrying it with them to prevent it from moving around on its own. The robot is a bit heavy, but far from immovable and after a few minutes of carrying it in their arms it becomes a bit easier to move around with it. Though the most annoying part of it is the mechanical legs still moving back and forth as if it were still trying to walk forward.
In no time they are able to make it back over to where they had left off before being interrupted. They make a bit more progress before they hear a new sound in the distance. Another hee haw. But this one definitely wasn’t coming from the donkey they were already holding. As they turn back around they see another donkey emerge from the hallway and continue on its mindless path forward.
Akash panics and rushes back towards the beginning of the maze for a second time to try and find a way to stop this donkey. Ultimately they decide the best course of action is to knock the donkey over on its side to prevent it from being able to walk forward. This ends up working surprisingly well and they decide to drop their original donkey on its side as well. Once that’s all dealt with they prepare to head back to making some more progress on the maze when… hee haw.
They spin around to see yet another mechanical donkey walk out from the hallway. They give a sigh and head back to knock this one over when they spot something different this time. It’s not just one donkey, but two. No wait, definitely more than two or even three. Suddenly several dozen donkeys begin to step into the room. Akash does their best to start toppling all of them over, but eventually dozens upon dozens of the mechanical beasts begin to storm into the room. More than Akash is capable of keeping up with. Before they know it they finally let one of the jackasses slip past their grasp and watch in horror as it steps out onto one of the squares that they had clearly marked as having a landmine.
Everything goes white for a second as the sound of a loud explosion fills the room. Within moments the effects of the landmine set off other nearby landmines, which in turn set off other nearby landmines. Soon the whole room is filled with fire, smoke, and debris with Akash nowhere to be seen.
Akash Ragavade Chitose Hanamura, the Super High School Level Engineer, has been executed.
