Choose Your Own Adventure Thread #1

Just to warn you that if you select an option for the next event, you would be barred from voting in the next three events. Not trying to be mean, it's just letting more people having a say. Something similar goes for everyone, including me theoretically. 

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You go into one of the several shelter complexes, which stands many stories tall like the others. The first room is resplendent and large, but despite its size it was crowded. There is a long line like the necessities stores, but a speedy staff makes the service served satisfyingly fast. You got to a clerk, who quickly validates you with a large database containing details of Maxtopians - you submitted your own information, containing blood type, hair color, eye structure, etc. when you immigrated here many years prior. The clerk then assigns you to Room 99, which is on the highest accessible level of the complex, and a key for the door. "It can be dusty in unoccupied rooms," she said. "The top rooms haven't been occupied for some time, so any cleaning needs you have and we'll get to it." Before you leave, the clerk reminded you to always keep your key when you're outside (you wouldn't want to get locked out).

Fortunately for you, there is an elevator for this complex; it was the only public one in all of Basis Nova. You take the elevator to the highest level, Level 8, and you walked down the beautifully-decorated carpet before you located Room 99. The details that this complex had suggested it must be a former hotel. The Maxtopian forces converted this isolated luxurious complex rather quickly.

You opened Room 99's door with your key, and inside there are basic furnitures and rooms. There are wooden chairs, counters, floor/overhead cabinets, a large fridge, and a table in the kitchen-dining room. The room also has a stove but no gas runs to it, hence the need for the propane burner (there are also no pots or pans, but there are dishes). Over to the bedroom rests a twin bed, some lamps, and closets. The living room offers a small loveseat sofa, more lamps, and a sizable television, along with a large window that gives you a scenic view of Basis Nova (is it really scenic?). Finally, you got a bathroom that contains a counter, toilet, bathtub, and shower. Room 99 is almost just as good as your home, but the only issue is that it is all dusty.

You set your heavy box in the kitchen-dining room and unpacked the items into the appropriate places; the food into the counter, the clothes in the bedroom closet, and the water bottles onto the kitchen counters. You briefly cleaned off the settled dust from the places you cared to clean before you sit on the loveseat sofa. There is a television remote, and you decided to turn on the television. The screen returned only with static noise, and changing channels didn't work. Then you would have to decide the things to do next.


A. Attend the scientific center as Mark suggested you to do so
B. Cook the canned food and drink the bottled water
C. Continue dusting your new room
D. Continue changing channels
E. Explore your room for anything interesting

E.

B.

Your urge to keep the Scientific Conglomerate on Diseases of Foreign Origins was surpassed by your urge to send it to the Maxtopian authorities.

You go out of Room 99 and locked the door before you, handling the package, descend to ground level using the elevator. The Scientific Center is just several meters away, but as the base is crowded, quite a bit of effort is needed to send a kilogram-heavy chunk of paper and files to the attached large camps. You manage to go through the crowd that formed outside of the Scientific Center's entrance. There, the scientists - some in lab coats, other in typical clothes - rushed across the camps in different directions, likely preparing for the infection session. It would take a short while before one of the people, revealed to be Mark, approaches you. "Ah... is it something of value?"

"It is a package, one that claims to be... uh..." - you tried to find the sticky note, nowhere to be found - "I'm not sure, but I think it claims to be the... Scientific Conglomerate... on Diseases-" before you could finish adding "of Foreign Origins," Mark quickly takes the package on you and responded, with amazement, "The Conglomerate!? Where in the world did you find this!? The scientific papers here are all written by Maxtopia's best scientist. If they are really legitimate, then you have just retrieved his lost works! And at the same time, we would be able to find out more about this infection! Great work, and remember to attend that session!" He gave you several pats on the shoulder before he introduce the package to other scientists, all of whom are fascinated. You hear some cheering behind your back.

What you found behind the mirror happens to be a renowned but lost work. But why was it lost, and who was this scientist that wrote the papers?" It doesn't seem important at this stage, now that a threat is spreading in Maxtopia and likely in neighboring countries other than Bigtopia.

A. Sit down on a seat and wait for something significant
B. Talk to someone in the camp
C. Go outside and read posters/texts that are outside
D. Call a north Maxtopian best friend
E. Call your parents

You sit down on one of the many small wooden seats that the Scientific Center had provided. Most of the places to sit on are long benches, but there are some chairs like the one you are on. You decide to see what would go on for the next few minutes, and all you notice are mumbling and footsteps between the crowds. You are just ready to do something else when...

...a man, distant from you, unexpectedly pulled a pistol and yelled, "Get down and surrender, you Maxtopian scums!" It is followed by terrified screaming and uproars. Anyone planning to enter are deterred, and the researchers sweep back to whereever facility they came from. You, like many others, are forced to lie low in demand of the man. Going over what he just said, you inferred he must be a hostile Bigtopian. "You Maxtopian hellhounds believe you can attack us, massacre us Bigtopians with your new bioweapon..." the man growled angrily as he moved his pistol at the low-lying Maxtopians, "but the infection your foolish southerners are suffering from is Violet's revenge for what you did to US! The almighty power and order of Violet shall strike onto you-" Before the man can continue, several Maxtopian soldiers rushed in and shot him with electroshock guns. The man shrieked and wobbled in pain as soldiers take him away from the camp. The terror was simply over, but not in a pace you expected excessively

A few minutes later, the announcer reported that the session is starting at any minute now, and right after the speech ended, several researchers approached the crowd while the large camp darkened and a slideshow entitled "2014 Maxtopian Infection Update" is revealed. A scientist began the session with, "Maxtopians, citizens and non-citizens alike, this is a session on the infection that's ravaging Maxtopia, Bigtopia, Lilliputia, Ainardor, Tasmania, East Lebatuck, Blackacre, Suvedoh, Eslakev and many nations neighboring our own." His opening phrase confirmed your suspicion it's not just Maxtopia and Bigtopia affected.

"We have already received many assistance from fellow Maxtopians and foreigners in Basis Nova, and these assistance range from providing new scientific equipment to - I dare say - reclamation of the Scientific Conglomerate on Diseases of Foreign Origins." The last seven words caused both shock and amazement within the crowd, but they died down as the scientist continued, "With help from people, we are able to make many breakthroughs in this disease. First of all, this disease is caused by a bacteria instead of a virus, despite its symptoms." The slideshow switches to an image of a blue microbe, a simple sphere with round proteins sticking out. It looks much like a large version of HIV, but it is in fact a bacteria. "Many people confuse the disease or microbe as a virus, so you can be forgiven if you do mistaken so. Anyways, the symptoms of the disease, by order of chronological occurrence, are: fever, increased bodily temperatures, bloody coughing/sneezing, inflamed esophagus/mouth and significant pain, pneumonia, headache, necrosis, dementia, organ failure, coma, and death.

"We are still working to find a name for the disease and where it originates from, but something we now know about the disease is that it works by simply causing great pain lasting for a few seconds when one eats or drinks, and this deters a victim from consuming food or water. This pain is also caused by coughing or sneezing. Eventually the disease will cause tissue death due to starvation and dehydration as the victim cannot consume much longer. Close to the ending stages, the pain shoots up and lasts indefinitely until the victim falls into coma and dies. Something we also found about the disease is that it not only affects humans, it also affects other multicellular animals, from small insects - which can die and not exhibit any symptoms - to medium-sized horses to large elephants.

"The disease in Maxtopia is still concentrated in the southern regions as most towns have been evacuated to bases like Basis Nova and as millions are infected. The north is mostly safe, but there are already reports of infection in northern Maxtopia, where the capital is situated. The cases of infection in the middle are rising, but not yet skyrocketing as in the south. As for other countries, Bigtopia is seeing deadly outbreaks in the south, Lilliputia is quarantining infected towns, and the worst of the suffering - Ainardor and Eslakev - have fell into partial anarchy. Tasmania is the most spared of all of our region, reporting only less than a few hundred cases and appearing to cope with it well at this time."

"Nothing in Maxtopian records had ever reported such a serious disease and outbreak, but the populace must be assured that all Maxtopian scientists are working around the clock with Lilliputians, Tasmanians, and East Lebatuckese scientists to combat the infection. Now, before we proceed, we will take questions." Soon there appears a quiet sea of hands. You believe you have a question to ask, but at the same time, you don't have that feeling so much...

A. Ask, "Are there any progresses made in the naming?"
B. Ask, "Does the disease affect plants and trees?"
C. Ask, "Is there a possibility the disease may originate from a distant location?"
D. Ask, "Why are the Bigtopians blaming us for the infection?"
E. Remain silent