Kev scratched his chin, looking thoughtful like a professor of mathematics.
When it came to solving puzzles, he wasn't particularly good, but he wasn't hopeless either.
"Maybe the symbols on the paper represent the sequence in which I should interact with the floor tiles."
"It's worth a try."
The first symbol on the paper was shaped like an upside-down 2. Actually, Kev had no idea whether it was the first or the last. If this symbolic language followed a system similar to English and the text started from left to right, then it should be the first. Otherwise, it would be the last.
Walking across the room, he approached the tile with the same symbol. As soon as he stepped on it, it pressed down with a satisfying click.
Hearing the satisfying click and watching the tile sink in, his eyes lit up.
"If I've guessed correctly, there seems to be a secret mechanism in this room. The symbols on the paper represent the sequence in which the tiles of this room need to be pressed to activate it."
The more he thought along this line, the more certain he became that he was right.
Rumble!
A great change took place.
The floor beneath his feet trembled.
A hole opened up in the wide room and a platform with a pedestal at its center slowly rose out.
From where he stood, he couldn't tell whether there was something placed on the pedestal or not.
He made his way up the platform, then approached the pedestal.
On it was an indent shaped like a human palm.
Kev did the most obvious thing, pressing his hand against it.
A second later, a sharp pain struck him. Acting on sheer reflexes, he pulled his hand back, turned it over, and looked at his palm.
A shallow red line had opened up across the center, stretching from one edge of his palm to the other. It was a stinging, painful cut with tiny droplets of blood oozing out.
The culprit was the tiny blade that had risen from within the indent the moment he pressed his hand against it.
It had sliced open his skin to draw blood. Done with its job, it sank back down.
While clutching the wrist of his injured hand, Kev watched in stunned silence as the fresh blood on the indent vanished almost as if something had drunk it.
He licked his lips, expecting something to happen. Contrary to his expectations, nothing happened.
He guessed that the amount of blood taken by the pedestal wasn't enough to trigger a reaction. He needed to pour more blood to get a reaction out of it.
He brought his injured hand back over the indent and squeezed.
The pain that followed made his arm tremble, but he endured it with gritted teeth.
Droplets of blood slid down his skin and fell into the indent, where they shattered like glass before vanishing from sight.
The symbols etched into the edges of the platform began to glow. Just then, a monotone voice rang out.
Unlike the iron-clad giant's incomprehensible speech, this time, Kev was able to understand what was said. They were spoken in the most common language back on Earth—Chinese.
Although it wasn't his native tongue, he had studied enough to understand it. Of course, if he ever tried speaking to a Chinese person in Chinese, they'd probably laugh at his accent.
The symbols' glow intensified until a ray of seven-colored light burst out from the pedestal.
Before Kev could react, it sank into his head.
A torrent of knowledge surged through his mind. It was extremely extensive and profound, its worth utterly immeasurable.
Receiving it all at once made him feel like someone had hammered his skull open to pour in molten lava.
The pain he felt in that moment was unimaginable.
He collapsed to the ground.
His body convulsed violently, jerking and twisting on the platform like a fish tossed onto dry land.
His vision blurred and then darkened, blood streaming from his eyes and nose. A deafening thrum echoed in his ears. It was so loud, he felt like his eardrums would burst.
"Make it stop. Please, make it stop!"
No one heard his cries of anguish.
Like always, no help came for him.
His suffering persisted unrelentingly as his brain struggled to process the immense knowledge that had been shoved into it.
Only after a long while. Seconds, minutes, or hours, he couldn't tell. Did the pain fade. His brain had digested the knowledge that was suddenly transferred to it.
Kev was left lying on the platform, drenched in sweat and blood, barely conscious. He looked miserable and pitiful, like an innocent street dog beaten to death.
But then, something strange happened. His lips moved, twitching into a smile, one that seemed eerily out of place given his current state.
His smile widened, and soon, his lips parted as he let out a hearty, uncontrollable laugh.
His laughter broke the silence in the room with a sound that felt both delirious and triumphant.
Yes, despite the hell he had gone through, he was happy.
If that was the price he had to pay to obtain the wealth of knowledge that broadened his understanding of his new reality and detailed a path to power that would grant him the strength he so desperately needed to survive in it, then it was well worth it.
He sat up, swaying slightly as he struggled to steady himself. He was sweaty and bloody, but he didn't care. He scooped some of his blood up and smeared it on the nearest symbol on the platform.
As if that had provoked an undeniable power to life, the pedestal shattered with a deafening crack, and from the wreckage, Kev carefully recovered a small box.
His eyes gleamed with anticipation as he held the box in his hands.
Inside the box was an item that could help him navigate the Abyss.
The Abyss.
It was what the native called this alien space.