Frank
unified the fields.
Well, almost. He stood behind his chair, drumming the back with his fingers as he stared at the computer screen. Three minutes left to solve one last equation.
People have been searching for the answer for as long as there have been people. Some found it. He glanced up at the smiling
Buddha sitting on top of his monitor. People have been looking for
this answer for one-hundred and fifty years.
and he found it first.
Two minutes. He knew the general form of the answer- it would be simple, painfully simple, smack-your-forehead simple. The best answers all are. Specifically, he had no idea what it would look like. That was the most frusturating part. How ironic that the most important scientific discovery perhaps in human history should just be another logic-riddle. Buddha smiled.
One minute. Most of the money for all the inventions and things made with this knowledge would go to the company, but Frank hoped for the credit. He had visions of going on the
talk shows, doing the
lecture circuit... People would throng to see him, stare at him-
Done. The screen popped up with a menu box, prompting Frank to 'Continue'. He licked his lips. "Continue", he said (mouses being a thing of the distant past).
And there it was.
Strange... not an equation or a sum or anything mathematical at all, it was a sentence. Or it appeared to be one- the letters were strange. It was hard to look at them; they seemed to move but did not. Yet he could understand what they said.
His eyes didn't have enough time to go wide.
A few minutes passed.
"Hey Frank, do you have... Frank?" Jeff, a coworker, came in with a folder. "Hm. where'd you go?" The hairs on the back of Jeff's neck were standing up. He looked around until his eyes rested on the monitor. "That's odd..."
Buddha smiled again.
There was light and dark. From ahead- no, everywhere... Nowhere? From somewhere could be heard a voice, no voices, infinite voices, five voices, booming until ears burst and barely audible. Yet at a comfortable volume. "Congratulations," it said, "Stage complete.
You have gained a level. Loading next level. Please wait..."