Unlocking The Brain

Mia had begun breathing heavily at some point. She calmed down a little and realized that she was straining her body purely from thinking. After closing and sitting down, she recognized that something about her was different.

Her own senses were amplified. Not in the sense that she could now hear sounds she couldn't before, but more that she could more effectively parse the information that her body sent her.

The most prominent example of that was her sore back. She would normally only be able to tell that it hurt and that it was because she was hunched over for too long. But now, she could easily identify which muscles were in pain, and how they had been stretched out too much.

She furrowed her brows slightly.

"Does this place make you more sensitive?"

Anna let out a giggle and put her hands behind her back.

"No, it's because of the puzzles you solved! They unlocked certain areas of potential within the brain. By now, you should be able to will things to move with your mind. Try it out!"

Mia was a bit baffled, looking at her strangely.

"What? Like superpowers?"

Anna tilted her head to the side.

"Something like that, but not exactly. In theory, everybody could do it, but I've never heard of it manifesting naturally."

Mia blinked a few times before attempting to do as Anna said. For a minute or so, she was just sitting there awkwardly. She was starting to lose a bit of faith but decided to give it one fair try, like she was a kid that thought they had superpowers. Her brows furrowed as her arms extended outwards, palms facing either side of her.

Then, two glyphs, one on both sides of her, suddenly lit up.

Mia distinctly felt a part of her brain flaring up, suddenly becoming quite hot as it vaguely transmitted the sensation of her hand pressing against the glyph. Like this, she was able to move several pieces into their proper position.

However, after finishing the sets, she stopped and felt quite fatigued. The back of her head was releasing heat like she had a fever. Anna flew in front of her and patted her head.

"Be a bit careful when you first use it, since your brain still isn't used to it. Once you get warmed up to it, you should be able to use it a bit more."

Mia nodded in a daze. She looked up at Anna with a sheepish look.

"T-Thank you..."

Anna flew loops around her excitedly while laughing.

"Don't thank me, thank yourself! Everybody can come to this place, and while I did adjust the rules a teensy bit so you could do it yourself, anybody can take on the challenge of solving these puzzles. Whether or not they succeed and benefit is up to them! The biggest thing I did was adjust the punishment, and maybe a few other things too."

Mia ran a hand through her hair. She almost felt like she was dreaming, partially because of the fatigue and partially because of the new ability she suddenly had.

"If it's like that... then that's great."

Anna grabbed onto her hands and began swinging them up and down.

"Yeah! Be proud of yourself! But you're not done just yet, so after a little break, finish the rest!"

Mia did just that. She absentmindedly closed her eyes and let out a yawn. She took a nap, while Anna watched her intently, smiling the entire time. There was a hint of obsession within her eyes that would only come from somebody incredibly starved for attention.

After thirty minutes, Mia stretched, feeling quite refreshed. Anna curled up her hands and put them on the sides of her face like she was looking at a cute puppy.

"Wakey, wakey! Time for more puzzles!"

Mia rubbed an eye and let out a hum.

"Ah right, I still need to finish the puzzles."

Despite taking a nap, she was still quite excited about her new ability, and since she didn't feel too bad, her assumption was that it should've been okay to try again.

Mia held out her hands, closing her eyes and focusing. Two glyphs fairly far away suddenly lit up. However, it was at this point that she felt something more. The fact she was extending her hands out wasn't to actually perform this feat, but rather to help her mentally accomplish it.

With a bit of effort, she was able to extend out a third "mental hand", pressing against another glyph. And then another, for a total of four. While Mia was fairly confident she could still go further, the amount of information she had to process had become incredibly overwhelming, so she pulled back all her hands.

She took a deep breath and settled down.

Anna spoke up after seeing her do that.

"It is possible to increase the strength of how hard you can move things with your mind, you will mostly improve in control more than anything else."

Mia thought about it. She did recognize that after waking up, her strength more or less stayed the same, but she felt much more in control of the actual force. In the first place, the only thing she was doing was pressing her hand against a glyph, which wasn't exactly the biggest athletic feat.

"Ah, that makes sense."

She got up and manually worked on finishing the glyphs, personally walking up to them and starting them. At this point, she had essentially figured out the most important parts of the puzzles, so finishing them was more of a formality at this point.

It did not take long for her to finally click everything into place, after which she felt a rather intense sense of satisfaction. All of the separated pieces had combined with each other, forming an amalgamation of cubes, which seemed both orderly and burgeoning at the same time.

Anna clapped rapidly.

"You did it! You won!"

Mia was a bit embarrassed, scratching the side of her head.

"Y-Yeah. Thanks for inviting me here."

Anna blushed slightly and rushed to hug Mia tightly.

"No problem! Can you guess what your reward for solving the puzzle is going to be?"

Mia tilted her head to the side cluelessly.

"Was it not the brain, um... unlock thing?"

Anna raised an eyebrow rather cutely.

"Haven't you already gone to one of the games at the border of the floor? You get rewards for just beating the game, but also for what you contributed. Unlocking the potential of your brain came from actually performing the correct actions, as I told you before."

Mia rubbed her chin with interest.

"Oh, that makes sense. Then, would my reward be a warp stone back?"

Anna let out a small laugh while pressing her index fingers together.

"Unfortunately, no. I'm not actually really supposed to give you a reward, since I listed the reward as lots of fun. Hehe."

Mia was a bit confused, but wasn't too peeved, as she didn't actually expect one in the first place. Though before she could express that, Anna smiled rather mischievously.

"But that only really means the reward I give can't be material. Instead, I can do something like this."

She pressed the tip of her finger onto Mia's head. In an instant, a rush of information passed through. It was akin to the effect the glyphs had on Mia, except it happened in less than a second, nearly overloading her brain.

Anna let out a gasp and hurriedly pulled her finger back, though that did little to help since she had already finished.

"Sorry! I forgot to limit myself a little bit."

Mia felt a bit delirious but was otherwise fine. She held onto the side of her head and began sifting through the information she was given.

"Ah... it's fine."

It was akin to a person repeating what they heard someone else say in their head. Where they remember the actual content, but weren't able to make sense of it the first time. Memories flashed through her mind like she was recalled an old movie she watched.

She could vaguely make out it started in a room with four card symbols around her, the clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. The memory then shifted to the diamond room, showing off a nine-tile puzzle and the steps to solve it. Then, it became a riddle, with the question being a bit blurry to her, but the answer was made clear.

Then finally, it showed off an awfully familiar glyph spread out across some floating white pieces. The solution was a far simpler version of the one she solved. After it was solved, it shifted to become a door which slowly creaked open.

After processing all of it, Mia turned to Anna with a curious look.

"What was all that? Is it another game?"

Anna tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes slightly.

"That's the promotion mission. I gave you the answers to pass the test!"