“Dude! Look at this bed!” Rex shouted with glee. The Unnamed Team had spent their entire journey to the castle sleeping on the hard ground. Dirt and grass would always stick to them. Bugs would crawl on them as they slept. Waking up with an aching back wasn't rare. Any fine mattress was a fine sight. This one, in particular, wasn't themed like the ones belonging to the sins, but it had its own charms. It was a normal dark oak bed that any modern human would want. The blanket was soft, and the pillows were welcoming. Rex couldn’t help himself. He sat down with a bit too much force, causing the bed’s frame to crack. Rex yelped, “Oops.”
“Come on. There’s no reason to destroy the king’s stuff.” Nicholas said. Skull, who was still in their bag, had mentioned that these quarters belong to the previous ruler. The current Demon King didn’t require sleep, so he rarely came to this room. As a result, an executive order was given to refrain from entering the room and disrupting its legacy. All of Demon King Chris’s belongings remain undisturbed. Dust had gathered from the years of neglect. Everything within the chamber had been at peace for centuries until The Unnamed Team came in to immediately ransack the place.
“I said oops,” Rex said with a shrug of his shoulders. It was an honest mistake. How was he supposed to know the bed would break so easily? It was designed to hold a demon. Rex expected the structure to be much sturdier, but it was almost as if the design was one fit for a human. Then again, its age may have been a factor in its abrupt destruction. Regardless, he got off. There was no way he’d be able to fix it, so he placed a blanket over the crack and hoped no one would notice. Fortunately, the group's attention shifted almost immediately.
“No way! He had a puzzle cube! I used to love these as a kid!” Xander exclaimed. He couldn’t hide his excitement. This was an object that shouldn’t have existed in this world. The simple cube that twisted and turned to match colors on each side was a fond item for most people. What Xander held in his hands was revolutionary. It was a simple child’s toy, but it represented far more. It was like a memento of his past life. Xander was tempted to keep it with him. Such an item didn’t appear often. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“You mean a Rubi-” Robyn tried to say. She knew what her friend was referring to and wanted to call it by its real name, but someone else had something to say.
“Whoa. You have to see this!” Nicholas said. He waved at the others to come to his side of the room. At first, Nicholas tried to be the responsible adult. He wanted to immediately leave the room and face the Demon King, but all of that determination dissipated. There was no way to maintain his composure with what was in front of him. It was a large blank screen. Yes, a screen. A real device that used electricity to display an image. Its size was rather large, and its level of technology was far beyond what these modern-day heroes would have used in their world. This type of television was made obsolete many years ago. Even so, this device was far too advanced to exist in this world.
Everyone gasped at the sight of this screen. It wasn’t powered on, so it simply acted as a low-quality mirror. Before the monitor were two controllers. Joysticks. They were extremely rudimentary, only able to move forward and back. There were no buttons to push nor triggers to pull. All a person could do was move the joysticks in their respective directions. Both Nicholas and Rex took a controller. One turned on the CRT TV while the other three heroes held their astonishment. A soft light flickered, providing little illumination to the room. Muted humming could be heard as the screen whirred to life. The image of two long white lines appeared at the edge of the screen.
A square dot spawned in the middle of the display. Breaths were held as the image became obvious. There wasn't a person alive who wouldn't recognize this iconic scene. The silence in the room was deafening. That is until the square dot began to move. The two players of this retro game panicked. They wiggled their controllers to understand who was who. Rex moved his line to block the dot, sending it back to Nicholas’s side. Nicholas then did the same. Child-like giggling escaped both of the men. They couldn’t control themselves. They were immersed in a game that they hadn’t played since they were much younger.
“How is this even possible?” Robyn asked. She was beyond shocked. What she was seeing went against all logic and reason. It broke every idea she had about this world. This level of technology should have been centuries away, yet it was standing before her. Robyn was never the type to play video games, but even she could recognize this classic game. The sound of bips and bops echoed in the room as everyone remained silent. All of them were enamored with the simple drifting objects on the screen. Silent agreements were made on the order of players and rules to be set. The game offered no way to keep score, so the next participants were assigned to perform that task. A feverish mindset plagued the team's minds as they focused solely on the game before them. Unfortunately, this immersion in such a simple game could only last so long.
“Guys! Shouldn’t we be, you know, leaving? To finish the mission?” Eins asked, snapping everyone out of their thoughts. The game on the screen ended when one player failed to counter the floating dot. The team's collective eyes narrowed and glared at the person that rudely ended their fun. Eins wasn't familiar with the novelty of this device, and they knew the mission needed to progress. The Demon King was only a single room away. The situation was dire and required attention. It was only by some miracle that The Unnamed Team realized how important their current quest was rather than returning to the game.
“Oh. Right. Let’s move out.”
