Sea of Rascals

Because of the darkness, his body seemed to have lost count of how many minutes had passed, he realised there was nothing he could do, and then he opened his eyes. What he saw was not what he expected.

Like the grades on the cards he had chosen, there were the same colours here. 6 paths in total. In the colours green, blue, purple, red, yellow and black. It was like just because he was focused he could see them.

James, of course, immediately realised what was going on and looked straight ahead at the black path. It seemed very easy to distinguish the black path thanks to the colours the other paths showed him.

James, who had started to move forward by using the remote control, seemed to have the mentioned tests in front of him.

Still, what he saw seemed to make him question whether this path was the black path, the divine path.

"Ummm...I don't think these are my desires at all. I mean, I like dancing and I'm pretty good at it, but since when did this become my desire?"

As soon as James said that, he started to focus on the images in front of him.

He was dancing with someone, someone whose face he could not see at all, but it did not take him long to recognise her.

"Lady Leyla?"

As soon as James realised who she was, his face flushed slightly and he shouted as if he were a child, "WE'RE TRYING TO BE GODS, WHAT THE FUCK IS THE PROBLEM WITH THIS TOWER!"

In his mind, this test was going to be quite difficult. Maybe he could see a large sum of money, maybe his ex-lover, maybe images of him living a perfect life, but no, the tower was showing him illusions of him dancing with one of the tower managers.

Having managed to recover his nerve and calmed down, he pressed the buttons again to move forward and this time he saw that he was on a Ferris wheel with Leyla, he immediately threw the remote back on the bed and then shouted "I'M NOT A PERVERT OK?!".

There was no way he could tell the tower how annoyed he was, he really would have preferred the embarrassment of reliving his hellish tutorial.

He picked up the remote control again, which he had thrown on the bed, and then continued to press the buttons continuously to pass this place quickly. Amid all this embarrassment and anger, he began to see things he didn't want to see.

He was sitting with Lily and laughing, but James wasn't bothered by it. He felt no attachment to his lover who had left him for something like money. It was clear from this that this test did not take the desires out of the heart, there should only be things to pass because the only real desire in James' heart was that he wished to be something and nothing else.

"Empty events, I can't believe I've been in a relationship with a woman like this for years, the tower is playing tricks on me and it's obvious, it's obvious that this is not the test. Although maybe this is the test and I've become heartless because this is nothing to me, this is not the best you can do tower, hit me hard so I remember why I want to be something again."

As soon as those words were out of his mouth the lights around him went out again, only the lights of the footpaths came on and a completely different image formed right in front of James.

James had lost his mum and dad in a very frightening way. He had managed to get out of the car when they had a car accident, but his mum and dad were not so lucky, the car had exploded very badly.

When the ambulance, fire brigade and police arrived at the scene, nothing happened except the burnt bodies of his parents were pulled from the wreckage. 

James was lucky, it wasn't a trauma for him because it hadn't happened at such a young age, he was just desperate to hug his family one more time...he had to be because you could see the two of them in front of him.

"Son, dear son, come to us, let's get out of here..." 

James heard his mother's voice constantly, the emptiness of his mind as if the superficiality of truth and lies had vanished. This seemed to be the true test of the tower.

The bed, floating in the water in the shape of a boat, slowly moved towards the light, all of James's thoughts went blank and he let himself go as if his mind was being controlled.

His hand began to move further and further towards the light, each passing second bringing him closer and closer to the light and strangely enough the light itself was becoming darker and darker.

"D...."

James suddenly felt like he heard a voice, but he couldn't understand where it was coming from, all he could hear at that moment was his mum calling him.

"Din....!!!"

When James heard this voice again, he didn't care about anything and continued to move towards the light as if he were mesmerised.

"DING!!!!"

Suddenly, a loud sound appeared right inside James' head. Shaken with a sudden shock, James realised that his hand was in the water, it looked like he was almost in the water. Suddenly jumping backwards, James saw his family again and gasped.

"Note to self...never make fun of the tower or get angry with it." he suddenly said and shook his head as if trying to understand how he got rid of this illusion. At that very moment, he felt a vibration just to his right.

"CLARENT!" he shouted with a smile as he looked towards where the vibration was coming from grabbed the sword and gave her a big hug.

"And how did you save me?" James muttered, but at that very moment, he smiled and said, "You used your control on me, didn't you? I'm a knight if I wield the sword of one of the greatest knights in existence...haha....."

After these words, Clarent glowed subtly and then disappeared, James, who checked his inventory in a hurry, smiled and then said "I can't believe you're smart enough to get out of my inventory....".

There seemed to be more to this replica than meets the eye.