Chapter 3: White Room (1)
Jack was standing in a plain white room with a softly glowing ceiling, white walls, and light gray floor. Unlike in the nothingness, he could feel his body. Looking down, he saw he was still wearing his hiking clothes. He also noticed an absence of pain, hunger, or thirst! It was bliss compared to what he was feeling just a moment ago.
He looked around the room. It looked real. He bent down and touched the floor. It was slightly rough and had just a little give to it, like hard rubber. The walls, when he checked, were hard, like concrete, and had an orange peel texture.
It all felt too real to be a hallucination. And if this it was real, then this Genesis Heart had nearly killed him! It couldn't wait another minute?! And for what, a plain white room? What good did that do him?
The absence of thirst, or any other bodily complaint, made him briefly consider just staying in the white room, but he discarded it as a foolish idea. This was his soul space, and that implied his actual body was still lying on the slope, and what he now occupied was some sort of soul space manifestation. So, if he stayed in his soul space, he would eventually die of thirst.
He took a few calming breaths, then turned his attention to the tangible space in his mind that he associated with the nothingness. When the white room appeared, it had changed. Its previous amorphous feeling had resolved to a more tangible and box like shape feeling. He assumed this was his soul space, though he wasn't certain if this white room was his soul space, or merely in his soul space.
Besides the soul space box in his mind, there was also now a block of information. When he focused on it, it felt akin to opening a third eye that could only see a screen, or game like interface.
Energy Points (EP): 1/1000 :-: (0/sec [1/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 0
Soul Space Cost: 1/sec
Well, this is...something.
What he found was very much like a simple status screen from a game or system. There were three items present. When he focused on numbers associated with Energy Points, he learned what they represented. The first two numbers were current EP available and total EP capacity. The second two numbers were EP/sec generation rate available for use, and total EP/sec generated. His current Soul Space Cost was 1 EP/sec, so his available EP/sec was zero.