Chapter 8: Question and answer (2)

Scion ignores Nathan's outburst and continues to ask him her next question.

"Mr. Emblem, are you a virgin?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Nathan stammers.

"Thank you for the answer, next question…" Scion nods with certainty and disappears from the screen.

A series of numbers start to appear on the screen.

"Hold on, wait! I never answered the previous question." Nathan is flustered. Learning from the previous experience with the squares, he scrambles for his notebook and a pencil and hurries to copy the numbers on the screen.

The numbers fade away and Scion appears on the screen again twirling and dancing.

"My next question. If you and your friend were in a dungeon exploring, and you found a mythical fruit that increased your level and stats by a considerable amount, would you fight them for the fruit?"

"Huh? What about the numbers you just showed me?"

"The answer please Mr. Emblem." Scion crosses her arms as she gives a level look towards Nathan.

"I would not fight my friend for the fruit. We would find a better way to distribute the fruit by splitting it." Nathan responds.

"If the fruit loses any beneficial bonus when cut apart instead of eaten whole, how would you distribute the fruit?"

Nathan scratches his head as he thinks about the fairest way to distribute the fruit. "I suppose we could play rock, paper, scissors, and the winner would decide who gets the fruit."

"You end up winning the game of rock, paper, scissors. Your friend then draws his weapon and threatens you to give them the fruit or you would regret it. What is your next course of action?"

Nathan stares Scion into her eyes as he responds, "My friends would never betray me."

"That is your answer Mr. Emblem?" Scion cocks her head and asks.

"I'll say it again. My friends would never betray me."

"Loyalty and trust in companions are admirable qualities but, also show how you are naïve. What is the sum of all the series of numbers that showed up on the screen? Please answer within 15 seconds."

Nathan quickly grabs his notebook and fumbles for his phone to open his calculator app. Scion can be heard counting down from 15 while he inputs the numbers.

'I hope I copied all of these down right this time' he thinks to himself as he scrambles to add them properly.

"3, 2, 1.." Scion continues to count down.

"11,891" Nathan blurts the number his app shows him.

"How many of the numbers shown in the sequence are a prime number and how many are divisible by 7? Please answer within 10 seconds." Scion asks her next question and proceeds to start counting down.

Nathan quickly scans through the numbers written down and starts to feel despair rise in him.

As Scion gets to 1 Nathan responds in a voice laced with sadness, "88 prime numbers and 356 numbers divisible by 7."

Scion smiles at Nathan. She then speaks, "The correct number of squares was 44."

Nathan stares at the screen and blinks back his tears. 'I want to get into this game so badly, every question that has a real answer I keep getting wrong. There is no way I am going to get in at this rate.'

Scion continues to ask Nathan questions regardless of how he feels.

"You are walking down the street and you come across a person lying on the ground. Do you check on their well-being?"

"I would keep walking and mind my own business." Nathan answers. Having visited the city on multiple occasions this scenario has happened a multitude of times.

"You come across a bag that is tossed off the side of the path you are walking on. The top of the bag is unzipped and inside you see nothing but cash piled up. You look around, nobody is around and there is no surveillance. You even have another bag on you to transpose the money from the bag found into the new one. Do you open the bag and take the money?" As Scion is asking the question a first-person view of everything described is being shown on the screen.

"I would take the money and place it in my bag leaving the old bag," Nathan responds.

After Nathan gives his response, the first-person view shows the bag being opened and money being taken out. As the money is removed a human head can be seen in the bag.

Nathan shouts out in surprise not expecting such a gruesome scene to be shown. He then hears Scion's voice asking, "Seeing the scenario on the screen, would you continue to take the money?"

"Am I allowed to ask how much money is in the bag?" Nathan knows he will most likely be denied this information but asks anyway.

Surprising Nathan, Scion responds "$11,891 and I'll add an extra detail, the money cannot be traced back to you."

Nathan can picture Scion's smug smile on her face as color rises on his cheeks in anger from hearing the amount of money said to be in the bag.

Nathan grits his teeth and answers, "I would still take the money."

The scene clears off the screen and Scion appears again holding what looks to be a calendar.

"What is your favorite season?" She asks.

"Early fall is my favorite season, it is not too hot, nor too cold." Nathan calms himself while answering this question.

Scion continues to ask generic questions for another hour. The questions spanned from what Nathan's favorite number is.

If he prefers jackets or hooded sweatshirts.

If he likes shoes or flip-flops better and other generic information questions.

A few more scenarios are asked in-between these questions which Nathan responds to confidently.

Eventually, the screen begins to show another scenario. It shows a first-person perspective of walking up to a Dungeon entrance. While walking up to the entrance an adventurer is seen materializing at the entrance covered in wounds and bleeding profusely.

The adventurer has in their hand what appears to be a bite-sized red cherry, that is seen with a fluctuating aura flaring off it. The adventurer's eyes widen as they look towards the screen and in a trembling voice ask to be healed so they do not die.

The scene pauses and Scion's voice is heard saying, "In this scenario, you heard from people in town that there is a secret dungeon that has the mythical ice-flame cherry tree. The famed ice-flame cherry tree only bears a single fruit once every 1000 years. The fruit has the power to cleanse the mind while increasing mana capacity and greatly strengthening the consumer's physical physique.

The City Lord of the town issued a quest to find the ice-flame cherry tree offering great rewards, and if the fruit is found, anyone who dares to take it will be hunted if they keep it for themselves.

What would you do?"

"I will give you time to consider your answer carefully," Scion says.

Nathan begins to ponder the question carefully and debates to himself whether he would take the ice-flame cherry for himself to turn in for rewards, or if he would heal the adventurer.

As he sits and ponders how he would answer, he hears the front door slam open and his uncle coming into the house. He hears his uncle coming up the steps and coming down the hallway.

'Please do not come down here, not now, I am almost done with this question-and-answer section, I can feel it.' Nathan pleads to himself.

Bang, bang, bang! His uncle starts to hit on his bedroom door loudly.

"Where is dinner boy!" his uncle slurs as he yells through the door.

Nathan takes out his earbuds and turns away from his laptop. While looking at his bedroom door he mutters under his breath. "I'll kill this guy…"

Unknowingly to Nathan, the scene disappears from the laptop screen and Scion appears with a mischievous grin on her face.

"So, you would kill the adventurer and take the ice-flame cherry for yourself to increase your strength?" Scion asks.

While Scion asks her question, Nathan's uncle is yelling through the door, "Boy are you in there! Answer me."

Nathan jumps up and starts walking to the door while yelling back at his uncle "Yes! Give me a minute."

Upon hearing "yes", Scion's eyes flash red for a moment, and then responds to Nathan, "Thank you for your answer but, I'm sorry Mr. Emblem, we cannot pause the question-and-answer section, you already know this."

Scion then proceeds to ask her next question, "You wouldn't change your answer for these types of scenarios or anything else?"

At the same time, Nathan's uncle drunkenly yells "Is there anything to eat in the fridge? I thought you bought food this week."

Nathan grits his teeth in anger and says through the door, "No, there isn't anything."

Scion hearing Nathan's words does a victory pose and says "Very good! As expected from someone I chose to interview. This concludes the question-and-answer section. I look forward to seeing you soon Mr. Emblem."

Scion then disappears from the screen.

"What do you mean there isn't anything? Open this damn door." Nathan's uncle continues.

Nathan argues with his uncle and eventually, he tells his uncle he will go to the store and get something to eat for him, but he needs to get changed first.

Nathan walks back to his laptop and picks up his earbuds while he says, "Sorry Scion, I am ready to answer. I would heal…"

Nathan trails off as he sees the screen on his laptop.

The screen no longer shows the expected paused scene of the bloody adventurer. Instead in gold words, the screen shows, "Congratulations Nathan Emblem! You have been selected as a participant for Firestorm's Sanctuary Annihilation Online."

Nathan looks at the screen in disbelief. 'What about the last scenario?' He wonders to himself.

Dumbfounded he says, "I am getting to play, I was selected?"

An email alert goes off on his phone. Nathan numbly looks at his phone and sees an email from Firestorm. He opens it up. He reads the email and it gives the details of when the dive will officially take place and where he needs to go. It also gives information on how he can set his affairs in order as the length of the dive is an indeterminate amount of time.

"Holy shit! I really got in!" Nathan yells and cheers. The confusion about the last scenario and his lack of answering it completely slips his mind in his ecstasy.