Midjourney (2024)
Battle of Fools
It's that time of the year again. The school is holding the yearly recruitment drive to bring in new members. When I approached the Role-Playing Game (RPG) club, the club president told me something peculiar.
Since I have extremely vivid mental imagery, I decided to see what it is all about. Without hesitation, I joined the RPG club. When the clock struck 7:30 p.m., I found myself in front of the RPG club door. I slowly pushed the door open and took a peek inside. The room is filled with board and card games, along with roleplaying props displayed on the cabinets. No one was inside the room, except for a note that was stuck to the wall.
"Stand before this empty wall and imagine the door. When you see it, step through. The Battle of Fools awaits."
As confused as I was, I decided to follow the instructions on the note anyway. I tried to imagine a wooden door, and it appeared right before me. Even though it was just my imagination, I pushed it open. To my surprise, I could feel the wooden door and push it open with my own hands.
On the other side of the door were a vast grassland, dragons soaring in the sky, mighty castles in the far distance, and a group of people standing beside me. I recognised these people, they were from the RPG club's recruitment drive but now dressed in role-playing attires, holding prop weapons. That was when I realised I had stepped into an epic fantasy.
"We've been expecting you, newcomer. Quickly, imagine your role. Soon, we need to start the Battle of Fools."
Apparently, this epic fantasy is birthed from everyone's hyperphantasia. Whatever is imagined or believed becomes true in this world. The reason the others have never seen the door is that they have aphantasia, the inability to create or access mental images.
"The fun of the Battle of Fools comes from battling fantasy creatures while being underpowered, forcing us to come up with strategies and encouraging teamwork."
I imagined myself as a typical wizard who knew only two spells. In today's session, we are fighting a horde of goblins. Normally, this would be a simple battle if everyone was overpowered. But since everyone purposely imagines themselves as weak roles, fighting a horde of goblins suddenly feels like slaying a dragon. Thus, it's called the Battle of Fools.
"If you die in this world, you will wake up in the RPG club room again. Try not to die too fast so you can have the most fun."
When the president imagined the horde of goblins, they appeared over the horizon, rushing towards us at full speed with bloodlust. Our group also put our strategy into action. The warriors formed a defensive line at the front to protect the backliners. As a wizard, I joined the other backliners and took my position. I was constantly reminded not to cast spells on my teammates; friendly fire exists in this epic fantasy.
The time had come, the goblins clashed with the warriors, and the president sounded the war horn. Everything felt so real, and my heart pounded with adrenaline as I tried to take down as many goblins as I could with my spells. I asked the president when the Battle of Fools would end. He responded that it would be over when everyone woke up in the club room, with the greatest smile on his face. It seems he was thoroughly enjoying himself in this hyperphantasia world.
In the final phase of the war, only the president and I remained, completely surrounded by the horde of goblins. The downside of a vivid imagination was that pain from getting hurt in this fantasy world still felt real, even though it's imaginary.
"It's no use, the goblin I imagined this time is too strong. Our group got wiped out so much faster than the last session. If you wanna go back to reality, try to stop thinking so you can turn off your hyperphantasia. You can also try to imagine the door again to escape back into the RPG club room."
As he finished, he pinched his own cheek and disappeared. He woke up to reality once again and returned to the room, leaving me all alone. I tried his method to no avail. The goblins are closing in on me as I frantically try to imagine the wooden door once again. Fortunately, the door appeared just in time for me to escape without having to experience getting hurt.
"Welcome back. We didn't win this time. But next time, I'm going to imagine a weaker version of the horde of goblins so the Battle of Fools would be fun. It's late now, you should go home and rest after all that hyperphantasia chaos. Don't tell those with aphantasia about our epic fantasy okay? They are going to think that we are schizophrenic."
My first session of the Battle of Fools was extremely fun. I'm so grateful to be born with hyperphantasia and pity those with aphantasia who could never experience what is behind that imaginary door.
ai-img-gen.com. https://www.ai-img-gen.com/lang/ru/details/Gd98wTtewQ==
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