Chapter 6 - Playing Roulette

Tayaw, unable to understand what was happening tried to scream, or fight back with whatever is pulling, to no avail. After a blink of an eye though, he found himself among a white void.

He looked around, trying to find a way out, but no matter how much he ran, he didn't felt like he was getting anywhere. The white void still looks like the white void.

"IS ANYBODY HERE?!" Tayaw screamed hoping someone will hear him.

Suddenly, two huge words appeared in front of him, comprised of bright blue floating objects rapidly morphing into different letters. As if waiting to be touched, the list scintillated in a hypnotic rhythm, inviting Tayaw to come tpwards it.

As Tayaw came closer, he was able to finally read the words as the flickering of the letters stopped. He looked at the words "Arts Record" floating quietly in front of him for a minute.

"Hello?" Tayaw said after waiting for something else to happen. The floating words, as if hearing him, started to light up in a pulsing manner again.

Tayaw then touched the words, and suddenly a white, basketball court-sized roulette table with a spinning roulette wheel appeared in front of him, only, no numbers and just a grid of countless blank white tiles adorned the table, with "Odd" and "Even" the only choices.

Tayaw was confused about the situation. "I was brought here; make me experience something so mysterious, just to play a giant roulette?" He asks to anyone who might be listening.

Seeing that nothing else is happening, he shouted "EVEN!" as he picked up the white shot put sized ball on the table and threw it in the wheel. After the wheel stopped, one tile on the table lit up, floated up to the middle of the table and a few words appeared on it.

"Literary records: Random piece x 8."

Tayaw was getting more and more interested by the proceedings as he read the tile. In the next moment, the tile flew to him at an incredible speed and smashed on to his head. With the speed, he had no time to react at all, or even brace for the impact. He felt an impending sense of doom as he closed his eyes.

Surprisingly, he felt no pain and just felt like his head was hit by a breeze of wind. In the next moment however, he felt the worst headache he ever had, pain he never imagined was possible, as if his brain is being compressed by a grid road roller.

Along with the pain, is information constantly being pumped into his brain. He could only try to decipher the information to distract the pain. 'Grimm's fairy tales. The Halfling. The Ruler's Ring. The Boy with the Lightning Scar. The Ballad of the Dragon and the Wolf. Moneyball : Statistics of Baseball. Saturday Night Lights : A Community's Dream. 42 : The Jackie Robinson Story.'

As the last of the information entered his brain, the pain also disappeared as if it was not even there in the first place. After regaining his bearings, he opened his eyes and to his surprise, he was back in the bathroom.

He slapped his face, and with the stinging pain, confirmed that he was where he really was. He pulled out his phone to check the time, and to his surprise, it was only 5:10 am. It was as if his time in the white void passed only in a blink of an eye. To confirm if the white void was real, he tried to remember the information that was pumped in his brain.

To his excitement, he can access in more detail, as if written in his brain, the information he gathered. To further his excitement, the "Literary Records" in his brain are stuff he never heard of before.

He considered himself as a well-read individual when it comes to novels and such, so he realized immediately that these things that the literary records gave him are of quality that he has never seen before in his world. Stories that are much more compelling and immersive than the fictional stories he read in his past life.

If he remembered it right, the white tile from before said "Literary Records: Random Pieces x 8". Literary Records must mean a list of records among the many records of the "Arts Record" he first touched. X 8 meaning eight pieces of literary works. And finally, the key word for him, "Random" meaning these 8 are just random literary works out of who knows how many, and they're already the best written works he's ever seen in his life.

As he was to exit the bathroom, he noticed at the bottom of his field of vision are the floating letters "View Points : 0". After his coming back in time, the white void, the gigantic roulette, he isn't surprised anymore at the floating number. He's not sure what View Points are for now, but he has an idea what they can represent in the future.

He then went back to the kitchen and sat by the kitchen table across his father, watching for the incoming check mate from the white pieces. He and his brothers played chess as a hobby after their father taught them the game. They just are not obsessed with it as their father is, but they still enjoyed it.

Tayaw was about to ask his father for a game, when his mother was finally done cooking the breakfast and put the dishes on the table, prompting his father to put away the chess board and pieces as well.

"Are you prepared for the exams today, Tayaw?" His mother asked as she sat down the table.

"I'm confident. Why is there only enough for two?" Tayaw replied but as noticed the amount of breakfast on the table was much less than usual, he couldn't help but ask.

"Oh. Your father will bring you to Northwestern, so you two will eat breakfast first. I will have breakfast with your brothers when they're up." She explained.

"Thanks honey. By the way, I've been noticing that Payew has been spending too much time on his game console. I heard his voice a few minutes ago. Was he up early? Or he never went to sleep?" Liboo asked his wife, hinting at taking away the game console.

"Don't worry; don't you think he earned it? He was in the top of his class all year anyway. He also does as he is told, and does his chores without us reminding him. His recent all-nighters though, I will talk to him about that today. I'll tell him to leave his console with us by 9 pm starting today." Kilat assured her husband.

Tayaw, while eating his omelette, just silently listened with a subtle smile on his face. He missed this seeing this. In his past future, he was too busy with himself and his life that he ignored and taken for granted these moments. He also wondered what his parents lost ever since they had him and his brothers. His mother had him when she was only 25 years old and never got to experience the single life he enjoyed in his past future life.

Tayaw never fully realized what he truly wanted until he was thirty, but his father on the other hand, already had three kids by the time he was thirty-one. The pressure his parents endured made him appreciate them more now.

After they were done with the breakfast, Tayaw gathered all the required doc.u.ments for his exam while Liboo washed up. And when Tayaw was washing up, Liboo started the car and checked everything.

By 6:30, Tayaw and Liboo started their trip to Ouigab. It was a five hour drive, so Tayaw had plenty of time to plan his new future and how to use the current blessings he received. This time, he promised himself to live a more fulfilling and joyful life.