Pong Land

Clink! Clank!  That was all I heard in the depths of the gold mine. I was sweaty, tired, and had lost count of the splinters I got from my pickaxe. When finally, the bell rang.

“Ok good work!” The gold mine manager boomed, “Hang up your pickaxes and hard hats and go home.”  

I was in the Red Kingdom, where everything was red. Red clothes, red houses, red trees, red water, etc. And all of it was ruled by our king, the Grand Red. It was actually pretty boring because it was all so orderly. I walked in a line with dozens of other people and took out my work tablet that tracked all my jobs. The Red Kingdom wanted all of its people to be good at every thing, so we all rotated through jobs - Chef, Architect, Chimney Sweeper, and even Sewer Checker! My next job for tomorrow will be Shield Management. You make sure that the energy shield protecting the kingdom doesn’t break. 

Why do we need shields, you ask? Well, there is another kingdom at the other end of the raging sea between us called the Blue Kingdom, and a long time ago, the kingdoms went to war and we both launched a lot of rockets at each other and they collided in mid air! From the explosion that shook both cities, the Bomb, the biggest bomb in the world, was created. The Bomb would fly across the ocean, aiming towards the cliffs that the kingdoms were on, trying to explode them both for god knows why. So when the Grand Red heard the news, he instantly got everybody in the city to make a shield to deflect the bomb. Over time, we improved it, turning it into the energy shield, but having a humongous energy shield took a lot of resources, so before we ran out, we would try to on purposely make the other kingdom explode by trying to make the bomb fly in an angle that the other kingdoms shield could not reflect. 

Finally, I reached home. I separated from the line of people and unlocked the door. Every single home in the Red Kingdom was exactly the same: a sofa, dining table, bathroom, bedroom, a few books, and a fireplace. I placed my bag on the table and rang a bell. Instantly, a hatch in the wall opened up, and revealed my dinner - chicken nuggets. The meals might be the most repetitive routine in the kingdom. Today was Thursday, so I got chicken nuggets. I took the plate and went to the table. The food was as bland as the kingdom was red. After shoving the last chicken nugget down, I cleaned up, put my plate in the collector, took a shower, and went to bed. 

The next day…

Inside the Shield Management Building, I had a guide and he talked me through the process while we walked around the building. 

“At SM, we put resources into the machine and voila! A shield.”

We walked into the central command room and there was a gigantic window that showed the sea. There were lots of screens and panels to monitor the shield. In the middle, there was a big column that went from the ground, to the roof. 

“That's the Controller, " he gestured. “We don’t actually move the shield itself, the Controller does that.” 

Suddenly, a warning beeped. “That means the Bomb is coming,” my guide explained calmly.

The Controller started to turn, and the shield moved with it! I looked out the window and saw the Bomb for the first time. It was a big reddish black sphere that flew towards us. 

“It looks intimidating but don’t worry, the Controller will deflect it,”  said the guide.

But it didn’t…

It sped past the shield and collided with the cliff that the kingdom was on, making the most deafening noise that shook the kingdom. The shield turned a second too late. The guide, now trembling, pointed, “It’s coming back!” 

He was right. Again the Bomb was launched, and again the bomb flew past the shield, hitting the cliff. BOOM!  

“We can’t take another hit like that!” one of the operators yelled. But we did, and with another terrifying BOOM, the cliff began to crumble, and the last thing I remember was falling.

Black, it was black that's all. Black. I rose up, and I was in my bed. What? I got up and looked around. How was I in my room? I opened my bag and inside was my tablet which showed my jobs, but they were different ones. I was so confused. But I did what I would usually do, my assigned jobs.  When I reached the chimney sweep building, I asked the guide, “What happened, why am I not dead? I thought the kingdom fell into the ocean?”

“What are you talking about? Get to work!” he shouted.

I followed his orders even though I was even more confused. Midway through cleaning out a chimney, I heard a big BOOM and I froze. Was it happening again? Then, another, BOOM. Then, one final BOOOOOOM. And I was falling again. More black, more booms, more falling. It happened two more times. Finally, instead of a boom, I heard the sound of the Bomb being reflected. 

Thank god, I thought, I need to find out what was happening. Each time the kingdom exploded, I didn’t have the chance to investigate but my job today was as a Kingdom Historian, so maybe I could try and find something. I went to the Archives and while my guide was explaining the job, I looked at the signs to find where to start. The first sign read, LAW, the second, RECORDS, the third, HISTORY OF KINGDOM. Bingo! I walked into the dusty hallway, took a random book and flipped open the first page.

 Long ago the Red and the Blue kingdoms went to war and -

I closed the book, went to another section and opened another book.

 Legends say that there was once someone called the Creator, he has great powers and made both kingdoms, the legend also says that he can shape reality itself and knows everything.

I paused. Hey! This Creator might tell me why I can remember stuff while everyone else can’t! But how could I find him? I kept on reading.

He lives in a magical house that is hidden in the wilderness.

Okay, that was convenient. Time to find the Creator.

I put back the book and started to leave when I heard BOOOOOOOOOOOM! Sigh. Not again.

Turns out, the wilderness isn’t that bad, it's just some nice grass plains and a bright sun, but later on it got more rough. Instead of hills there were mountains and in the place of rocks there were gigantic boulders. After around 30 minutes, I went to rest on the peak of a mountain and gazed at the horizon. It was an amazing view of the kingdom and the grass plains.

Suddenly, I saw a black and red smudge in the sky. What's that? I thought, then as it flew closer, I realized that it was the Bomb flying towards the kingdom! BOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOOM! I watched it slide into the ocean again and looked at the ruins of the Red Kingdom. Now that I'm here, I won’t be killed! I thought. I didn’t know how to feel. Maybe a mix of confusion and sadness.

But then, the ocean rumbled and a piece of the cliff burst out of the water and floated in the spot it used to be! More pieces rose out of the ocean, slowly, the kingdom was resetting! When the kingdom was fully restored, there was a humongous clinking and clanking of coins, then even more rumbling. The Bomb popped out of thin air and flew toward the kingdoms again! Questions flew through my mind. Why was the kingdom restored? What happened to the Bomb? How did the kingdom just float back together?

I’ll find answers when I find the Creator. I thought. 

An hour later…  

Status: I’m tired, sweaty, and in a thick jungle.

I was losing hope when I saw a light. When I brushed away the leaves, I saw a strange house that was red on one side and blue on the other and purple in the middle. There were three doors, one in the red, one in the purple, and one in the blue. I walked towards the red door, then stopped and thought to myself -  why am I going to red? Because I’m from the red kingdom. Well what's wrong with blue? Blues the enemy. But what's so good about red? Ummmm… So I can’t go to red, but I can't go to blue, so purple?

I opened the purple door and stepped into a purple room that was empty and a stony, voice boomed out of nowhere.

“Well done! You have passed the test!”

 “What? Who are you? Where are you?” I asked.

 "The meaning of this test is if some normal person came here they would have chosen the red or blue side.”

 “Is this a recording?” I questioned.

“Only a special person would have chosen purple, and a special person is worth my attention! Also, if you're wondering, this is a recording.”

 “Wait, special?” 

“Yes, I said special and by the way, this is still a recording.” 

Then a door opened out of the wall of the room. Carefully, I walked in. It was another blank room but then, a person popped out of nowhere. 

“Hello, what symptoms do you have?” he asked wearily.

 “What? What do you mean?” 

 “Oh sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm the Creator and you probably have something strange going on with you so then you came to find me and I can fix you.”

 “How?” I replied.

“Well, I coded this game and you are just some code bu- “

“No, I mean how can you fix me?” I interrupted.

“This entire world is actually just a game and you are just one of many glitches that's why you have something strange going on.”

 “Okaaaayyy, I mean I keep on dying when I wake up I still remember the previous days,” I explained. 

“Oh, that's a new one. Well, that can be easily fixed.”

 The Creator then typed in the air and said, “Ready to go back to your old life?” 

“Wait, dying daily?” I said in disbelief.

 “Well, yes. But you won’t remember,” he replied.

“What if there was another way?” I asked.

 “Huh?” 

“What if we blew up the Bomb?”

 “Wow, I never thought of that, and I never liked my kingdom being blown up all the time, so let's do it!” the creator said. 

“But, to blow up the Bomb we have to put an equal amount of energy from when it was created,” I explained.

“Well, there’s two kingdoms with an arsenal of rockets,” he contemplated.

“Okay, but how do you convince the kings to launch the rockets?”

 “I’ll think of something,” he says confidently. He looked at me. I didn’t want to keep dying everyday so I shrugged my shoulders, then nodded.

 “Welp, let’s go,” he says.

He then typed in the air some more and then we teleported into the red kingdom's throne room. 

“What? How did you get here? Who are you?” the king boomed.

“Um, We are citizens with an idea!”

 “What idea?” they ask.

 “We want to blow up the Bomb!”

“Impossible! We already tried multiple times!” they interjected.

“Well,we have a missile that would work with the entire arsenal of the red kingdom.” 

“Well, we don’t really use the arsenal anyway, so sure!”

 Then we teleported to the blue kingdom and convinced the blue king. 

“Well that was surprisingly easy!” The Creator chimed. “It’s like this is a story and whoever was writing this is under a deadline!” “Anyway, launch in three, two, one!” 

Hatches opened in the red and blue kingdom and blasted out hundreds of rockets toward the Bomb. Then, there was a GINORMOUS 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0OO0OOOOO0O0OO0O0O0OOO0000O0O000OOOOO00000OOOOOOOOO0O000O0OOO0OOOOO0O00OO000OO0OOOOOO00OOO0OO00OO0OOOOOOOOOOO0OO0OO0OOOO0O0O0OOOO0OOOOOO0O00O0O0OOOOO0O0O0O0O0O00OOOOO000OOOO0O0O00O0OOOOOOO00OO0O0O0O00O0000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Bomb was gone.

“WE DID IT!” I shouted.

In the real world…

Pew! Pew! That was all I heard in that arcade, I was playing Pong with my friend, and I have destroyed him 5 times already 

“Ready to be demolished?” 

I said, sliding in another coin. 

The game starts and the ball appears, I deflect it and it goes to my friend, but then it disappears! What happened?