They both joined a line again where they were given their tasks to do in the day.
" Why do we need to work? And what is this work?" he generally asked Luka who was in front of him in the line.
Luka returned to his carefree mood. "1st: We work because that's why they captured us. If they find no use for us, they kill and desect our limbs for experiments or throw us like trash. 2nd: work differs from person to person. They will tell you what you need to do." Luka said.
...
They saw many other lines running parallelly with them until they ended with a short robot giving them their tasks from a rectangular screen on their hands, and the people dispersed for the same. Luka was sent to the mining site. Then, the small robot asked the boy, " Hey newcomer, what's your name?"
"Uhh.. I don't know."
A blue dot twinkled on the robot's wrist and the boy's band gave him a huge shock. He let out a scream in pain and fell down.
' I really don't know it..' he whispered as he came back from the shock.
" Don't ever try to act smart in front of me." it's voice changed from shrill to deep and again in a shrill voice it said, " What's your number then...100507. The one who destroyed a outlooker robot with bare hands. You are going for gathering."
They gave him 3 large cuboidal boxes made up of wood with with a handle on each to hold."
" And you would be gathering...White starflowers. 3 full bags. Now go on, who are you waiting for!"
One of the soldier robots around them held him with his collar and sent him in the line of the gatherers. Everyone was given a small plastic bottle of water. The line went into a portal which went to a forest area outside the castle. There was no fog, but the weather was a bit purplish and cloudy.
He had no idea how a white starflower looked like, or where it was found. He asked about it to to a lady, who was maybe nearing her old age, with little wrinkles on her forehead and clearly parted black and white hair.
"White sunflowers... they are rarely found in these forests, but always in group. If you find two locations with white starflowers, your work would be done. They are found near coniferous trees or in wetlands. Though remember what I said first, they are very rare."
The boy appreciated her help.
"hey btw, what I need also resides near wetlands. I can help you find it."
"Thanks a lot."
Both of them roamed around, on hills, in plains, in deep forests, but wetlands were no where to be found. Every place was dry as spring.
At noon everyone was teleported back to the point where they started, for lunch. And what for lunch? A plain old soup!
" I thought we would get something better, atleast a proper food to eat." he said
" Life really sucks here.." replied the lady.
After lunch they got teleported back to their positions. And there was no more eating before the task was completed. The surroundings turned dark. The purplish environment turned black, low fog entered the place again, but the night sky was clear with the large golden-white moon completely visible today. The time on the band was running out. They had to find their stuff before midnight.
'At this rate we won't find a single group of flowers, let be two'
They sat for some time to rest. While sitting under a tree, he saw something far away. A light in the dark forest. He ran towards it to find a large pond. The bordering water of the pond was full of white flowers glowing under the moon.
"Starflowers" the lady told him. " It's a large field of the flowers. You're work should be done faster! Ohh.. and here are the black mushrooms I've been trying to find. Let's complete our work and go back as soon as possible."
As he touched the first flower, glaring at its beauty, a thought came in his mind.
" Just a quick question, should I take only the flowers or the whole plant with the stem and little roots? Well...they asked for starflower... does that mean starflower flower or starflower plant??"
"Starflowers would grow back until they have their leaves and roots. If you want your work to be done shortly you can take the whole plant, but that would mean destroying the beauty of this place. Or you can take only the flowers so that they can grow back, but your work will stretch off. What do you choose?"
after half an hour, they finished their gathering. 3 baskets of white Starflower and 2 Baskets of black mushrooms.
" It's going to be hard to take them back. On that I haven't eaten anything since noon."
"Don't worry about returning, we can teleport back. About food, its not often we get to eat after the task is done."
"whattt?? So I can eat only in the morning now? Whyyy...?" he cried.
They teleported back to the starting place and back into the kingdom through the portal. After submitting their tasks to the respective robots, they were sent back to their cells with a plastic bottle of water again.
On seeing the bottle, Luka showed a little feeling of resentment but let it go just as fast.
'Understanding this guy will be nearly impossible...' the boy lampooned.
That night he met his dear ghost buddy again.
"hey buddy how's it going?" the ghost said as the boy found himself in the same black space.
" It's going nowhere! I'm still full of confusions!"
"Oh really? I thought a day there will clear all your doubts. Anyways, I have your mission you need to complete here."
" Will I get my memory by doing it?"
" Part of it. Once all the missions are completed, all your memory will be with you again."
"How do I believe you would stick to the deal?"
"you still don't want to believe me?
"OK remember this, I can't beat you in the real world the way I did here, that is, I can't affect you in the real world if you don't cooperate. For example, I opened a magical portal for you, but it was your will to go in there or not. So if i don't give you your memory, you're free to live however you want without clearing other missions.
"However, It's in my will to haunt you in your dreams, hehe." said the ghost.
"That's not fair! Last time you said i had no choice but to follow what you say. You lied didn't you!"
"N-no. Not at all! You would've died if you lived in that place for more than a week. So you didn't have any option but to follow me!"
"Still, you lied"
"sigh... So do you plan on completing the mission I give you?"
After thinking for sometime the boy said with a straight face, " What do I have to do?"