Chapter Text
A tiny, completely white creature wandered through a strange gray space among a multitude of doors of all different colors and sizes. This creature liked to call itself the Reader, and it was highly voracious. But not in terms of food—rather, in terms of listening to new stories and experiencing unforgettable impressions and sensations. Behind the doors of creatures like the Reader, a narrator waited patiently. It was they who were responsible for the story they wished to tell the white, faceless creature. In the depths of their soul, every narrator, or rather every author, wishes for their story to be known to the whole world, to be on everyone's lips. And perhaps, to even become a bestseller and an enduring classic on the level of Pushkin or Dostoevsky... Fortunately or unfortunately, far from everyone manages to reach such a level of popularity. However, if you think about it, not every author actually cares for such media presence and fame, so there is no need to despair too deeply over this. But this truth is not understood by everyone...
The Reader was intrigued by a small and strangely cozy lilac door, with a handle as shiny as gold. Yet, despite such a seemingly harmless passage, a barely noticeable trail of blood led toward it, which in its own way evoked a certain discomfort and even fear. But this did not stop the creature, and it resolutely opened the door.
Behind the door sat a tiny slugpup, the exact same color as the passage itself. Next to them lay some strange, huge paintbrush, as well as a large and, most likely, VERY heavy book. It was completely black; it seemed even its pages were just as black! The slugpup quickly noticed the new guest in their abode and smiled genuinely.
"Hello, dear Spectator, welcome! Sit down, don't be shy," in response, the Reader cast a questioning look at me. "Oh, are you wondering why I called you a spectator? Hah, well, my story, my world—it is a theater, my characters are actors, though far from everyone realizes where they are, but who cares, right? And besides, it's even better in a way; you will see more lifelike emotions, actions, and all that. So for me, it is more accurate to call those like you spectators. Do you understand my logic?" The Reader nodded in agreement and somewhat timidly sat on the cold floor next to me. I opened the book, and the paintbrush, which had been lying on the ground, floated up into the air. Before it plunged the entire surroundings into pitch-black darkness, my voice spoke one last phrase: "If you find it uninteresting, you can always leave; I am not keeping anyone here against their will."
And after that... the Spectator saw only...
Darkness...
***
Enot tiredly opened his eyes, his body trembling from the cold raindrops that had seeped into the shelter. Yet another cycle of suffering for this dark-blue slugcat to endure. These were the thoughts that constantly crossed his mind before resigning himself to his terrible fate and, eventually, stepping out of this completely soaked shelter. Of course, Enot understood that the room had become damp because of this damn water, but deep down, he didn't rule out the possibility that it might actually just be his tears—tears of pain and despair...
"You should hurry, unless you want to die in the rain," an unfamiliar voice in the slugcat's head called out to Enot, and the latter, not daring to disobey his friend, crawled into the pipe leading out into this cruel world... No... That was far too mild a word for the place where the slugcat found himself... Rather, it was a literal hell. A hell where practically no one loved him. A hell where everything was absurd to an impossible degree, and in the worst way. A hell where the developers had sent him, just for the sake of a dumb joke, after verbally dragging Enot through the mud from head to toe. They had shown no mercy... abandoning a completely defenseless and innocent creature here... Why? What for? What had the slugcat done to deserve this? Apparently, his creators were just in a bad mood back then... Or perhaps he... really was the pathetic nobody and jester they made him out to be in this hell...
The walls, floor, ceiling, poles—everything was red. Because of this, the environment even looked somewhat flat and unnatural. Only the sky was stark white, though it couldn't be ruled out that it only appeared that way against the backdrop of all the other "redness." Outside, it was raining cats and dogs; the rocks and spears trembled violently under the force, as if the region of "We forgot to render this, sorry" was currently experiencing an earthquake, rather than a very ordinary (by the standards of this unreal world) downpour.
Enot pondered where he had never gone before. He only hoped that he would soon reach some "Void Sea." His friend told him that it was there that the slugcat would finally find his happiness and long-awaited peace. He wanted so badly to believe it...
"Where do you think I should go...?" The slugcat's voice sounded incredibly tentative and timid, immediately giving away his kind but extremely fragile and malleable nature. In contrast, his interlocutor spoke in a more encouraging and cheerful tone, either to break the oppressive atmosphere or because he didn't realize what Enot had already managed to see over these... what seemed like ten thousand-something cycles...
"Hmm, below is the 'Painage System,' and above is the 'Industrial Complex'... Listen, maybe we missed something on the left? You know there could be secret, unmarked passages anywhere. And considering how... eye-searing... everything is in this region, it's quite possible you missed something last time."
Exactly which "last time" his friend meant, Enot didn't understand, nor was it at all necessary to know. So, the slugcat went left once again. He hadn't gone fully to the right yet; there was always a scavenger toll visible at the end, and our hero had... let's just say, a very strained relationship with them. Enot's eyes involuntarily began to ache and even water slightly from the appearance of this region, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Passing into one of the rooms with an open area, where there wasn't even a trace of a roof or ceiling above, the slugcat began to wait patiently for the rain to temporarily stop being so lethal so that the martyr could proceed further. But as if out of spite, it simply refused to end! What kind of curse was this?!
But despite this, Enot didn't get angry at such "surprises" that constantly appeared in his life. He had grown used to them long ago. The slugcat had resigned himself to them... right? In fact, the downpour even calmed the martyr to some extent. He found something undeniably mesmerizing in the way a multitude of heavy drops, as hard as concrete, fell at lightning speed onto the earth—exhausted from the constant blood and cruelty of the local inhabitants—striking the burgundy metal ruins of some long-forgotten, almost completely collapsed buildings, adorned with soft light-red grass and tiny, fragile flowers that, to Enot's surprise, possessed a normal variety of colors and shades, unlike everything else in this place.
He was distracted from contemplating anything even remotely beautiful in this horrific region by a piercing growl from behind. Turning toward the sound, Enot saw a Red Lizard. Before the slugcat could take a single step, the predator lunged at him, opened its toothy maw, and successfully clutched its prey. Numerous sharp fangs instantly pierced Enot's weak body. At the very least, the lizard had managed to snap the poor slugcat's neck and back. Blood rapidly began to flow from Enot's mouth and deep wounds, but because of the matching environment, it was nearly impossible to see. Only by the smell could one detect the presence of this red fluid near the two creatures. The only thing the martyr could do in this situation, before dying yet again, was let out a loud and pitiful cry, which, however, did not deter the beast in the slightest. The predator didn't even flinch, only clenching its jaws even tighter. Searing pain wracked the martyr's body for a second time, but it lasted only a moment. And then...
***
"Oh, my god, Enot! How many times have I told you not to get distracted?!" The same voice woke the slugcat, only this time it sounded more irritated and anxious.
"I-I'm s-sorry, s-sorry, I didn't mean to, r-really..." the martyr tried to make excuses in response, stuttering heavily. He felt incredibly awkward about the whole situation. Enot felt a deep shame for what had happened. The slugcat did not want to disappoint his only friend, and it was very obvious...
"Argh, fine, I forgive you... Come on, get out of here already." After these words, the martyr hurried to leave the shelter. Enot ran with all his might to the left, and this time he even managed to quickly slip through that roofless room, but it was too early to relax.
Ahead of the slugcat lay another such room with an open area, only this time, as if out of spite, it was WAY bigger! He tried to remain optimistic. Only in such a situation, that was very difficult to achieve... Enot still couldn't hold it in and let out a quiet whine of discontent and melancholy.
"Just don't start whining right now, please, everything will be..." The voice suddenly cut off.
"@#₽&%/? What are y—"
"Quiet!" his companion interrupted. "Or they'll hear us..." Looking closer, the slugcat noticed six scavengers armed with a multitude of bombs and explosive spears. They were currently sheltering from the rain under one of the platforms supported by three thin but sturdy pillars. In that same second, Enot's heart pounded even harder with fear, and his legs buckled and trembled. If the squad saw the martyr, he wouldn't survive... However, one must not lose hope; no situation is entirely hopeless! At least, that's what @#₽&%/ always told him.
The rain subsided slightly, and noticing this, Enot silently leaped onto the nearest long pole, and after that, managed to land on top of one of those bizarre statues standing everywhere. The scavengers looked up, but didn't notice the slugcat and began to slowly walk away, to which Enot let out a sigh of relief. He hopped onto the next platform. Then onto another. Suddenly, out of a pipe, a Red Centipede appeared! Enot did not expect such a sudden appearance of the enemy; he screamed with all his might and fled the room as fast as he could.
"Enot, holy moly! Why are you so jumpy?!" the martyr didn't answer and crawled into the correct passage leading to the next room. Here, the downpour suddenly started again, preventing Enot from going further. Realizing that the centipede had likely crawled into the very same pipe to catch its victim, the slugcat returned to the previous room, and naturally, the insect was no longer there. But only for now, as the passage soon began to flash red, warning our hero that the enemy was close. Before performing the trick of deceiving the creature with the pipe again, the martyr looked ahead and saw the scavengers approaching him.
"Everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine!" Enot whispered under his breath over and over. On the bright side, a fight had likely broken out between the two species, which bought the slugcat a little time to escape. Just then, the rain weakened! The martyr dashed to the nearest pole and began to climb up toward the next passage into another room, when suddenly he was stopped by @#₽&%/.
"Where are you running?! What about checking the unmarked pipes?"
"What do you mean???" Enot stopped at the very top of the pillar.
"I mean that because of all this completely unnecessary panic, you forgot why we are going to the left in the first place! And we are going there precisely to check THESE. UNMARKED. PIPES!!!" The voice shrieked the last words with particular venom, making the listener's knees tremble.
"What did I do to deserve this..." the slugcat muttered under his nose, jumped down from the pole, and landed right on his stomach. It hurt, but the martyr had no time for whining, so he hastily stood up and began attempting to crawl into other pipes. The first—nothing. The second—nothing. The third—nothing. The pipes on the floor and on the nearest wall had been checked; on the top of the opposite wall, there were four passages! Enot climbed onto the platform and managed to jump from it to his goal. The fifth—nothing. The sixth—nothing. The seventh—nothing. The eighth—nothing.
"Why are you in such a hurry? We have plenty of time." Indeed, the explosions and sounds of spears coming from the pipe the slugcat had just crawled out of should, on the contrary, calm our hero, not urge him on even more. "This beast will kill off all the scavengers, and in all that time, it'll manage to forget about us a hundred times over!" These words didn't comfort Enot at all. His eyes were already failing to endure the abundance of red everywhere, making searching visually for other pipes in this room far more difficult; on top of that, his friend was inserting his five damaged pearls into all this commotion for reasons unknown! The martyr noticed one last potential secret passage. It was at the ve-e-e-ery top. Mumbling something completely incomprehensible in a very tired and pitiful tone, Enot began to climb the pole again, still hearing the sounds of the fierce battle between the scavengers and the centipede. How he hated them... "And besides, do you really think the scavengers will actually defeat this monster? Haha, Enot, my friend, don't make me laugh, please. That's definitely not going to—" And suddenly, the explosions stopped, replaced by footsteps that grew louder and louder with each passing second! They were approaching! "AAAAAH!!! MY GOD, RUN, RUN, RUN FASTER!!!" The slugcat startled and in a rush scrambled to the very top of the pillar. In that same second, the scavengers appeared; all six had very noticeable bruises and scratches on their bodies from the recent battle with the centipede. Blood seeped slowly from their wounds, but their faces remained the same—cold and indifferent to the pain. One of them, noticing Enot, threw a spear in his direction. Fortunately for the martyr, the weapon lodged into the wall instead of his head.
"Don't let this filthy thief escape!" the scavenger said venomously as the slugcat slipped into the next pipe.
"What do you mean, 'thief'? Enot, did you steal something?! DO YOU REALIZE YOU COULD HAVE COMMITTED A SIN?!"
"No, @#₽&%/, I never would... And you know that..." he panted out. "They are talking about that incident... I assure you, those are all rumors! And besides, I thought you knew that... Can't you just... read my mind? You said you could do it, I remember that clearly."
"Anyway, moving on! Fine, I believe you! Now, let's close this topic and never return to it. And really, you'd better go check the secret passages before the scavengers catch up to you." It was indeed a more sensible decision right now not to sort out internal disagreements, but rather to look for potential pipes leading to entirely new rooms. First, Enot climbed onto the platform and began checking the wall nearest to him. The first pipe—nothing. The second—nothing. The third—nothing. And then the scavengers stepped out, and in panic, the slugcat jumped down from the high ledge and entered the passage on the floor. But instead of entering another room, the martyr was transported to the very top of the exact same room.
"There he is! Grab him!" one of the squad members shouted, and all the others began to slowly surround Enot. The victim, after staring blankly at the ceiling for a few moments, noticed a few more passages. The fourth—nothing. The fifth—nothing. The last hope remained only in the unmarked pipes on the floor. Two scavengers got close to Enot and threw an explosive spear at him. But the slugcat noticed a rock lying next to him in time, and managed to block the blow with it, throwing the projectile toward the flying weapon. The red ribbon exploded, and while the enemies were distracted for a second, Enot jumped down again.
The remaining four scavengers took up positions on top of other platforms and statues, sniping the victim with spears from afar. The slugcat somehow managed to evade all of these projectiles. The sixth—nothing. The seventh—nothing. The eighth—nothing. The ninth—nothing. Only the last, tenth pipe remained, located in the very corner of this room. If it also turned out to be fake, Enot's death at the hands of the scavengers was absolutely guaranteed. But it wasn't as if he had another choice.
The martyr ran headlong toward his goal, which proved to be a major mistake. Several spears managed to hit the slugcat's tail, and then he caught the blast of a bomb, throwing Enot aside to crash into the nearest wall. His head ached terribly, his vision swam, and his lungs frantically tried to gulp down as much air as possible in one go. But the martyr was not going to give up. Looking down, he realized that very tenth pipe was right in front of him; at least now, luck had turned to face the slugcat. Standing up, Enot felt a sharp pain in his leg and instantly fell onto his stomach, whimpering quietly, unable to hold back his tears. Apparently, it had been damaged by the explosion or something similar. Six multicolored spots were rapidly approaching the not-yet-fully exhausted victim, talking among themselves in a highly irritated and clearly unfriendly tone. What exactly they were saying, Enot couldn't make out, as he had begun to hear an unpleasant ringing in his head from the recent impact against the wall. But even after such severe injuries, the slugcat didn't want to back down. How stubborn he was! Barely crawling along the ground and leaving a distinct trail of blood behind, the martyr reached the pipe and tried to climb inside. The tenth...
...
... nothing...
"N... N-no..." In that moment, Enot felt as if something inside him was... emptying... Or rather, fading out. But it wasn't food, or anything physical at all... No... It was the slugcat's hope fading. His belief that all these creatures living in this hell might not actually be so evil. His belief in the power to change his life. His belief in his creators...
A loud crack echoed throughout the room. The last thing the victim saw was the faces of his killers. The scavengers still looked threatening, dangerous, and harsh, but on their faces, one could make out a tiny drop of... sympathy... After all, they could have just left the slugcat to die an agonizing death; demise was inevitable anyway. But instead, they decided to deal with him quickly—namely, by piercing the martyr's barely beating heart straight through. However, Enot didn't even think about any of this. He was too deeply immersed in his depressing thoughts, which had been visiting our hero more and more often lately.
***
An awkward silence ensued. Wiping his eyes, Enot simply stared at the ceiling, having not the slightest desire to rise to meet his next certain and inevitable demise. The slugcat had no choice; he would have to go toward the scavenger toll. From this obvious and bitter truth, the martyr couldn't hold it in, and his eyes seemed to begin watering on their own.
"Enot... I understand it hurts to go through all this, but... hey, you've survived worse! I'm sure you can handle anything!" the voice tried to somehow comfort his friend, but did a poor job of it.
"I c-can't even h-hold a spear in my p-paws to b-basically s-stand up for m-myself... But w-with the egg, I could k-kill all those m-scavengers at once... but y-you forbid me from u-using it..." he mumbled in response, his voice trembling.
"And you know perfectly well why! Do you really want to doom your only friend to eternal torment?"
"N-no... I d-don't..."
"Exactly, so come on, get up and head to the right. I recommend you don't waste your precious time in vain on all these tears and the like. Understood? So stop crying already." Enot listened to his friend.
Wiping away his tears and calming down a little, the slugcat stepped out of the shelter. Of course, in reality, the martyr hadn't checked one more unmarked pipe located at the very top. However, our friends already understood that trying to climb up there made absolutely no sense—it was also fake. Catching his breath, Enot walked rapidly toward his goal. His face expressed no joy, only sadness and melancholy. Almost no hope remained inside him, and his phantom dreams of the Void Sea faded away as quickly as they appeared. The slugcat walked beneath a stark white sky and buildings as bright red as blood. Clenching his small fists, for what purpose was unclear, Enot prepared for new trials and obstacles. He prepared for the endless suffering that would soon overtake him again... It would hurt... He would be afraid... But the martyr simply had no other choice in this hell. The developers had stripped him of that choice... After all, Enot was such a weakling and a coward. He was a nobody. An incompetent, useless failure and a fool... He deserved the fate he had now...