10 Chapter 10: A Chilling Truth

"Are you lads not paying attention to what I was saying?" 

Eli's voice cut through their sniggering as a chill went down the trio's spine. They raised their heads to look at Eli, shaking their heads vehemently in denial.

"What do you mean? Of course we are listening to you. You were just going on about th.. the-"

"The rewards that you got for being the winner. Right, what was it? Some sort of chant ye?"

"It was a mantra if I am right? Sounds like magic, honestly."

The three of them fumbled, finishing each other's sentences, trying to explain.

Elysia laughed at their behavior and Zephyr also smiled, looking at them fool around. This was just how it was always when they were all together.

Letting out a sigh, Kane chuckled as Eli continued.

"Well, the mantra I received as a reward was not really from the GUIDE. It was the rewards for the scenario I was in, like a preset objective. But the thing is that I can't really teach it to you, or anyone. It's stuck in my head, but I can't say it out aloud. Mysterious how these things work."

"Well, we can just ask the GUIDE for why is that so. It has an explanation for almost anything. Unless it decides that it does not want to tell you." Jay added.

Everyone nodded as Eli posed the question to her GUIDE, which was a blue-colored fluff ball. 

'Strange choice. I would have thought that her GUIDE would look like Chucky with a knife' Kane thought jokingly.

|*The mantra that you received is part of an inheritance. You can't impart it until you are actually able to master it.*|

The GUIDE's explanation was crisp and short. Everyone nodded their heads in understanding. Now that Eli was done with her tale, suddenly the room fell silent. Kane thought of what next to say when Jay beat him to it, "Zephyr you still haven't explained how you are suddenly almost as tall as me. What kinda steroids did you take, spit em out real quick."

Layke chuckled as he added, "Yeah, share with us bro, Kane could probably use a dose or two."

"Yo, why am I getting all the friendly fire today?" 

Zephyr laughed, "Yeah I forgot about that, and the safety device too. So there were some health serums that were stored in bulk in the guy's apartment. I decided to bring back a handful. I thought they were like health potions. It shocked me when I took one of them and legit grew an inch or two. Turns out simple health potions of the future are so effective I hit a new growth spurt right after taking them."

"But the GUIDE explained that this was just a mutation that was activated by me taking the potion. It's not exactly due to it, but maybe it catalyzed the mutation or something. Not exactly sure how the whole merging with mutations from my other selves works out. But it is what it is. Also, the safety device seemingly is useless. According to the GUIDE, any messing around with time would lead to great repercussions. After the merger, space and time are very chaotic, apparently "

Layke seemed to deflate as he muttered, "Guess Kane won't get those extra inches."

"You sound like you need extra inches in you bro, the ship feeling too lonely for you eh?" Eli asked.

"Yo shut the f*** up, you nasty BL lover. "

"MUAHAHA"

Seeing them all holler, Kane smiled. But he kinda knew that they were all just trying their best to distract themselves. He had been away for eight damn hours, so he could feel that they might have just been pacing around freaked and worried. And hearing about Zephyrs experience first might have added up on to their anxiety.

Zephyr had been gone for barely half an hour, so after he had returned, he had immediately sought to connect with them on call to share what had happened and to warn them. At the same time, he updated them on GUIDE and they all had made their first contact. Eli at that time was still there, but Kane, not picking up the call, had got them worried. 

Staying cooped up inside their rooms, not sure what to do, seemed to make them all freak out with anxiety more than ever. They had decided to stay on the call until Kane joined them. Two hours had passed by with them making idle talk, or talking to their GUIDEs, when suddenly Eli had fallen unconscious in front of them. 

Zephyr had immediately asked his GUIDE what was wrong with her on instinct. Its reply had been two words - |*Dream stage*|

The group understood its message, and their worries continued to increase.

They had already asked the GUIDE about the personal merger and the stages.

The month long merger had different stages, something like platforms to compete with their other selves. Each stage provided a different environment to compete in. And stages had scenarios.

There was the dream stage which simulated a dreamscape for you to compete in. Then there was the World stage, which randomly selected a world from one of the alternate realities for the person competing as the environment. The third type of stage was the memory stage, which, according to the GUIDE, would pick a memory as the environment. And finally, there was the reality stage.

The first three stages were the safe type, as in you did not actually get transported in physical reality. It was like putting on a VR headset and playing a game. This was the fundamental difference between the world stage and reality stage. In reality stage, you actually had to compete against your alternate selves in the reality, not a dreamscape or a memory scape. And that was it about the stages.

Then there were scenarios like the one Zephyr experienced. In his case, it was not part of the merger. But the idea was something similar. Once your stage was determined, the scenario basically explained the objective of the stage. It could be a group battle royale like what Eli experienced, or it could be some plot driven problem solving kind of like what Zephyr was in. 

The thing with scenarios was that there was no way to know what it would be, or even prepare for different types as it could be anything. In this vast universe with countless realities, there were going to be equally countless scenarios. And that was it, all about how the personal merger worked.

"The more you look at it, the more this apocalypse looks like a very large-scale version of olympics, where we compete with our alternate selves. Not at all like other apocalypses. Almost as if it were orchestrated," Kane mumbled. He just didn't feel it was right.

|*Resident Kane has been misunderstanding the merger as apocalypse for a while and it seems this has created a misunderstanding amongst you. As the GUIDE, I would like to remind you that this is not an apocalypse. How can it be? When the entire universes is merging into its best self. When all the resources split throughout realities are going to be pooled together to nurture one reality to be the best. When no one is actually going to die, how can you call it an apocalypse?*|

The group was stunned at hearing this. This was the first time the GUIDE had spoken up without being asked to, but the meaning behind its words was shocking.

"But you mentioned surviving the personal merger, as if we would perish otherwise. What do you mean, that no one is going to die?"

|*You won't perish, Resident Layke. No, the alternate version of yours that succeeds you will absorb you, if you fail to survive. You would continue to exist within him as his part of consciousness. Just unaware of it. This is not an apocalypse Residents. It's an opportunity. For you to show your worth. To get the chance to be the one who gets to enter the final reality. All your alternate selves would merge into you, absorbed one by one, if you show your worth and survive the personal merger. Or you would become absorbed. Either way, you get to live. As the worthy or as part of the worthy*|