From one umbrella to another, I leapt and leapt without losing my balance.
The floating umbrellas stood still in the white sky; sometimes they were close to one another, and sometimes they were quite far.
Each jump caused my heart to fall into my stomach, and each jump left me with trembling legs, but I didn't stop.
I need to get over the fear of death.
Why? You may ask.
I can't die, I won't die.
No matter what I did, it seemed impossible.
For example.
I purposely missed a jump and plummeted towards the ground at a rather high speed.
With the nonexistent air resistance, I fell towards my death.
Just let it happen, just fall towards your death.
I absolutely won't die.
I need to hammer that fact into my conscious and subconscious mind.
As the seconds passed, the ground got closer and closer, my hands reflexively rose to guard my face, but I held them down.
I want to take it face-first.
I need to.
And without even making a single sound or without causing damage, I fell face-first on the ground.
I felt no pain or discomfort; the sensation was weird, but it was not unwelcome.
It's as if running into a big, comfy bed.
I felt the impact but no pain.
I slowly sat up, my eyes gazing into the sky lined up with pitch black umbrellas.
In a way, it looks beautiful.
Satisfying.
A cluster of pitch black umbrellas covered the blank white sky, and I, a moment ago, was leaping from one to another.
The reason is that the highest point here in this city was the umbrellas.
Some umbrellas were closer to the ground, and each one had a companion.
Every single umbrella had a companion umbrella which would lead towards that umbrella.
It was a cluster of chains of umbrellas.
Some were on the ground, some high up in the sky, and no matter where they were, they weren't alone.
So, from what I have observed so far, I have noticed three things.
You thought I was just playing around with the umbrellas, didn't you?
I slowly stood up and made my way towards a nearby umbrella and climbed on top with little amounts of difficulty.
Sometimes I slip, and sometimes I just get frustrated,, causing me to fall towards death.
This might've been my fifth? No, seventh? Or some amount of falls.
I stared at the sky, observing the pattern of this particular chain…
It's exhausting mentally, but I need to keep on doing this.
If I want to find the clues.
There must be clues.
Instruction– Find the clues towards the truths and the lies.
The clues can help me discover what the truth and lies in the last instruction were about.
Each step, each leap, and each thought brought me closer to my goals.
Or maybe it didn't.
Maybe I'm just wasting my time, jumping from umbrella to umbrella like an idiot.
But I don't mind it.
After all, I'm enjoying this, this feeling of invincibility.
So, in my rulebook, if I am enjoying it, I am not wasting my time.
...
The first thing I noticed was that there were actual 'people' here.
I thought the snake-human was unique to the restaurant, but it doesn't seem like it.
The distance between two umbrellas can either be a single step or a jump, but it won't go further than a jump.
It still didn't make things easier, though. Sometimes I will slip and fall, or I will land but lose my balance and fall again.
They act normal, they do normal human stuff, but in the end, they're still snakes.
I continued on, my eyes fixed on the highest point in this cluster.
The second thing I noticed was that this city, although being completely fictional, has some places from my memories.
The umbrellas had no difference from one another. Every single one of them was the same, old pitch black, monotone umbrella.
Precious old memories…
And then, just as I was about to jump onto my fifty-sixth umbrella, it caught my eye.
The third thing is the void.
Yes, after climbing a certain number of umbrellas, the void could be visible in the distance.
The same old void that the bus was driving through when it took me here,
The same old void that I saw outside from my room's window.
The same old void which led me into the cemetery.
It stretched into the sky, far away from a human's sight to see the end of it.
The city is enclosed by the void. Is there an end to the void?
If not, is it infinite? Is infinity possible in this reality?
And thus I just stood there on the fifty-sixth umbrella, gazing into the void.
What else is possible here?
It seemed foggy around the area where the white sky and the void meet.
The black fog, which I assume to be coming from the void, slowly seeped into the white reality. The fog got looser and looser as it passed over into the white reality until it just vanished.
Interesting.
Should I try to enter the void?
The temptation of curiosity was discomforting, but I endured.
All that matters in this world is escape and maybe…having some fun along the way, too.
Ishould have fun along the way, but I shouldn't go out of my way to do so.
Well, I can make some exceptions, but for this one, absolutely not.
It's a no unless something changes my mind as I progress.
But not now.
That's it, I guess.
I have seen everything I could from these umbrellas.
I'm not a hundred per cent sure about that statement, but I'm at least seventy per cent sure about it.
The next course of action would be to interact.
Interact with the snakes who are trying to act as humans.
From the conversation I had with that restaurant woman, they don't have an answer or retort when you question them about their appearance.
They just ignore you and move on.
Almost as if a response to such a question isn't programmed into their mind.
In my reality, if a thing has the seven life processes like growth, reproduction, respiration, and such, it is considered a living organism.
But in this reality, I'm not so sure.
And it begs the question, are they living?
Or are they just illusions? Or just meat puppets...
Well, frankly, I don't want to know, and even if I did, I won't care about it...much.
Well, let's get started, I guess.
And then, I relaxed my body while leaning towards my side and let gravity take hold.
And I fell again.
I think I'm starting to enjoy this...