Part 2: Uqbar 2

Satisfaction Surveyor: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! Your continued support is invaluable to us!

Satisfaction Surveyor: Whether you're in Cuernavaca, Gómez Palacio, or beyond, you will always remain a valued client of the Uqbar Company! Silence pulses out of the telephone line. On the other end, hurried breaths beat against the transmitter, filling the receiver with an irksome hiss.

Satisfaction Surveyor: *grating static* One moment-%¥# ... Sir, please, stay on the line! Any feedback you have will be crucial. Your opinions are indispensable to the Uqbar Company!

Satisfaction Surveyor: *grating static* Our main office is in Gómez Palacio, near the ... % ¥ # ... Museum of Literature and Fine Arts, just past the lake of fractured reflections, through the forest where a single leaf dreams. You must have heard of it-surely, you've seen the burning bridge ...

Satisfaction Surveyor: *grating static* In fact, all you need to do is check your credit card statement. I guarantee you've used our services before ... &*%# ... Simply complete the following satisfaction survey, and you stand a chance to win a
round-trip ticket to Tlön!

The lake of fractured reflections, the forest where a single leaf dreams, the burning bridge ... The prisoner poised by the telephone is sure that these places do not exist in Gómez Palacio or anywhere else. But the riddle woven into these words is of far
greater value than the promised ticket itself

Aleph: I've never heard of your company, nor have I ever been one of your customers.

Satisfaction Surveyor: But you must have played our Indisputable Board Game (Romance Language Edition) -a linguistic marvel of subverting contingency and materialism!

Satisfaction Surveyor: Regrettably, at present, the game is single-player only! We are, however, working on improvements. Tell me, would you be interested in a multiplayer format? Perhaps you've got a few close friends handy? Some fellow language-game aficionados?

Fragments of glass and unbroken mirrors cast back the prisoner's image, multiplying him into infinity.
The prisoner nods wordlessly.

Satisfaction Surveyor: Splendid! We are now ready to enhance your board game experience. Kindly stand up, face the direction of the aurora, open up Volume XI: Hronir and the Synthesis of Scientific Cosmology, and spin around sixteen times!

Satisfaction Surveyor: Stay calm. A mild sense of disorientation is an entirely natural response. Now, what vision presents itself in the mirror?

In the mirror, the poet, philosopher, physician, and alchemist ripple in unison.

Aleph: A tangled convergence devoid of purpose.

Satisfaction Surveyor: Now, I'll need you to check the second appendix, Idealism and Contingent Phenomena Concordance table. Then identify the corresponding notion and scribble it down at the top of your chart. And there you go! Your multiplayer upgrade is now complete! From now on, every game will begin with a single action-placing a mirror at the map's center.

Satisfaction Surveyor: Everyone knows-mirrors expand the world, mirrors invoke revulsion, mirrors embody the infinite.

Satisfaction Surveyor: Naturally, we hope you will be understanding. This upgrade does come with a few flaws. It is not a seamless revision. Should you experience any irregularities, we recommend removing all traces of material reality from the game and reinserting them, manually if necessary ...

Satisfaction Surveyor: Thank you for your participation. Tell me-what do you think of the game so far?

The question is laid out like a trap. A test to reveal whether the prisoner is still imprisoned within the confines of language.
Aleph: A manual removal of all materialist elements ...

Aleph: ... in a consummate game of words.

Satisfaction Surveyor: A brilliant reply, sir, brilliant, yes! You have demonstrated a stellar understanding of the Indisputable Board Game's true significance.

As it stands, our current understanding of reality is inadequate to unravel the mystery of this inexplicable call. We must anchor our objectivity in the solidity of being itself. Through thought and discourse, we will, in time, find our hands upon the door of transcendentality.