It was six o'clock in the evening. For millions of people in Istanbul, it was the start of at least an hour's worth of torment. Nafız was just leaving his job at the copy shop across from the courthouse at this very hour of agony.
When he sprinted to the metrobus station, the time had already passed six fifteen. Having used this line for about two years, Nafız had started to view getting onto a metrobus from Çağlayan, which was already full from Mecidiyeköy, as a difficult, daily mission.
He dashed like lightning into the crowd accumulated at the front door. A huge grin spread across his face as he barely squeezed inside just before the door slammed shut. As the metrobus pulled away from the stop, Nafız fumbled to take his earphones out of his pocket.
Even though it was cramped, he had always enjoyed riding in the front of the bus. Watching the road through the gigantic window reduced his momentary stress, even if only slightly. As they started descending the hill towards Halıcıoğlu, he noticed a commotion near the driver.
He pulled out his earphones and looked in that direction. The first thing he heard was a large, middle-aged male passenger yelling at the driver.
"Are you hauling cattle, mate? Hit that brake like a human being!"
The driver, whose belly was inches from the steering wheel, retorted in a harsh tone:
"If you don't like it, take a taxi, pal!"
The metrobus driver's words were a classic. Nafız had heard countless verbal fights like this over two years. Just when he thought the incident would blow over with a few swear words at most, the color of the situation abruptly changed with the driver's grunt.
The passenger drove the umbrella he was holding straight into the driver's forehead like a nail, and the metrobus groaned with the sound of the impact.
The driver, who'd just taken an umbrella to the head, instantly lost it. Ignoring his own physique, he sprang from his cab and tried to punch the passenger. This senseless incident, which normally might have been a good spectacle, was reported in the next day's papers with headlines like: "Panic Aboard Metrobus That Crashed Into Bridge Pylon."
As the driver chose his love for a punch over safety and slammed the metrobus into the base of the bridge, Nafız was violently ejected through the front window—the very window he enjoyed looking out of and daydreaming while watching the view.
In the brief moments before he hit the road, a film reel flashed before his eyes: the moment he learned he and his sister were orphans; his sister's arranged marriage; and the years he was forced to live in the home of that jerk who became her husband.
Despite screaming his lungs out, one last question popped into his mind as he saw the asphalt:
"Should I be sad that I'm dying?"
When he opened his eyes, he was falling headfirst inside a gray vortex. In this terrifying second, when his heart was about to leap out of his mouth, a metallic voice reached his ear.
"New simulation initiating. Please set options!"
"Select a world!"
A soft voice, whose source was unknown, replied:
"The World of Six Civilizations."
After the answer, the metallic voice spoke again:
"Select a civilization!"
Another very excited person created a commotion, shouting, "I'll answer, I'll answer this one!"
"Let it be an Orc!"
The metallic voice systematically continued to ask a question after every answer:
"Determine gender!"
The person with a deep male voice replied:
"Female!"
"Determine physical and mental capacity level!"
Someone else, whose voice was clearly mischievous, waited to give the answer:
"The same as the previous simulation."
Before the new question came, laughter echoed within the vortex.
"Should memory wipe be performed?"
"No!"
That single word was loud enough to silence the recent laughter and make loud guffaws roar through the place.
The metallic voice said, "Simulation beginning, final 5 seconds!" and the countdown started.
5!4!3!2!1!
Nafız had tightly closed his eyes and was crying, trembling with fear, after everything he had heard. When a force violently yanked him by the head at the end of the countdown, he was forced to open his eyes.
The first thing he saw was a green creature with two enormous tusks hanging from the corners of its mouth. Nafız, who was screaming his head off in terror, was forced to silence when he was plunged headfirst into a barrel full of ice-cold water.
After being dunked two or three times in the barrel, he was placed next to the others lying on the floor.
He was about to pass out from all the excitement but could only look at the baby lying next to him out of the corner of his eye. A few words raced through the terrified Nafız's mind, and he fainted again.
"What kind of ugliness is this?"