Audacious

Myriad Reality

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*One covers the functionality of the machine, another describes key risks, and another the emergency protocols*

@Host

*Tucks the book under my arm, closes my eyes for a moment to ever so minutely lower the temperature of the inked segments of the page, separating the words from the paper itself in the eyes of my sixth sense, and starts trying to parse information from the book without reading it directly, starting with the emergency protocols*
I have the code.

Myriad Reality

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*The first several pages of the manual offer large and bold warnings about the risk of being stuck in the chamber for an eternity; the middle of the manual documents the use of a spacetime distortion chamber, including failsafes, escape sequences, and emergency protocols, but with an emphasis that no one can save you in the event of a cascade failure—about two thirds through the manual is an access code of "7584" with a warning below the code to read the manual in full before use*

@Host

*Mumbles*
Thanks, Mister-or-Misses Author, but we by the time we read this thing, it will all fall apart anyways.
*Skims the manual fully for standout headers*

Myriad Reality

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*Only one of the books is in a legible language, one is full of pictograms, and the rest are other languages of the planet*
Maybe it's not a security measure?

@Host

*Pulls the one I can understand out*
If it’s not, then it’s super weird.

Myriad Reality

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That sounds right to me.
*Pulls out several of the books, each of which is the same size and contains the same contents in different languages*

@Host

*Rubs my face with one hand*
The security for the soul-warping, life-ruining secret is a puzzle with some books?
*Starts thumbing through the books on the shelf, skimming their spines for names that might seem to matter*

Myriad Reality

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Your story?

@Host

Oh… The we- Nevermind. Maybe, but first, am I reading this right? “Code in manual.” Do we need to find a manual among these books or something?

Myriad Reality

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*At the bottom lies a glass floor overlooking a lens-like black aperture, and on the wall is a shelved a series of small books, alongside a single number pad with an accompanying sign that reads "code in manual"*
We may have time to hear it.

@Host

Hear it?

Myriad Reality

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Tainted? Tainted how?
*Another set of signs on the way down indemnify Myth Co. from any and all consequences of entering this chamber and emphasize that the reader accepts complete personal responsibility for any and all effects*

@Host

From dying and it becoming fused with a reality-warping storm before I was given a new body. It's a long story, if there ever was one.
*Approaches the ladder and starts my descent*

Myriad Reality

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One way to find out.
*In the center of the rings is a perfectly circular hole with smooth eggshell-white edges and a pristine blue ladder bolted to the sides that leads down two floors*

@Host

I guess I'll go first. My "eternal soul" is already kinda tainted.

Myriad Reality

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*Shrugs and shakes my head*
Your guess is as good as mine. Do you get the impression it's protecting some kind of secret?

@Host

I would think it's important at least.

Myriad Reality

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*Takes a few steps deeper, and as the circles get tighter, the warnings also become shorter, including "MAJOR TIME ANOMALY ZONE" and then further inward, a pictogram of a man aging into a decrepit state as everything around him turns to dust*

@Host

You think it's a bluff to keep people away from what's inside?