Imagine perfection.

A city resplendent in its might, the sun always shining on its ivory streets. Its elegant low-slung buildings, constructed from the newest materials, can be seen in every direction, their pristine roofs covering the city in a white glow.

Go further towards the city's center. You'll notice that every road leads there. While walking, you'll run into many of its citizens. They parade along the city's streets all day, nothing but pleasure on their minds. Of course, they have a sense of morality. They believe in a god. Anything indecent is done in the privacy of their homes, but as long as they are outside, life is a perpetual festival. People of all ages dance and sing in joy as they fill the streets.

Soon you will reach the city's summit. Standing solidly on top is the magnificent city hall, its monolithic walls rising far above the city. Its white marble exterior glistens in the sunlight, the ornaments throw spots of light in elaborate patterns on the pavement. Enormous statues flank the entrance, a testament to the city's splendor. As you near the entrance, you'll see large raised platforms built into the side of the hill. Paved in white marble, they house glorious trophies of war.

Go inside the city hall and you will have the audience of the king. Standing in the cavernous space of unimaginable glory, trees of gold, silver, and diamond rising around you from floor to ceiling to intertwine into a complex structure far above, you may ask him anything and he will answer. He is an understanding leader but does not concern himself with his subjects because he knows that they are already happy. He will tell you about the city's conquests, the perfect method by which money is distributed, the way all citizens are taught to make one another happy.

Once you know everything, he will bid you farewell. Now you're free to wander the city. You may orient yourself by a massive compass inlaid in the pavement a hundred steps from the city hall's entrance.

Go east and you will find the marketplace. It is a gigantic sector of the city, its many tents and stores selling everything you can possibly buy. Every citizen has enough money to buy whatever is needed and more. Parts of the ever-present parade break off to do their shopping but quickly return to the festivities.

Somewhere among the crowds and buildings, you will meet a man sitting alone in a sunlit outdoor cafe. He'll tell you about those who make the food, who develops the goods, with whom the city trades. Eventually your mind will be filled with thoughts of opulent possessions and unending possibilities, but you will have to leave when he finishes.

Go west and you will find the residential areas. The houses gleam invitingly as their residents exchange pleasantries on the streets. The streets themselves are paved in a smooth white stone, gently reflecting the sun's heat. In front of one of these houses, one of its sides on a tall artificial cliff overlooking more houses and dazzlingly green parks, you will find a man. His exterior is well-maintained and he gives off the air of a cultured gentleman. Ask him, and he will tell you how efficiently these houses are constructed and who maintains them. He'll offer you a house of your own, but you will politely decline.

Go north and you will find the center of the city's intelligence. Massive white towers house knowledge of the city's technology. Breakthroughs are made every single day. Just as the citizens parading through the rest of the city, the workers here are perfectly happy. They know nothing but their work. Colossal sculptures, taller than even the buildings, depicting the heroes and achievements of the academic system, celebrate the city's scientific prowess.

Ascend to the top of the tallest building and you will meet a man. He is the head of the city's scientific community. He takes great pride in his work. Ask, and he will describe in great detail the monumental significance of helping the people through knowledge. You will want to know more, but he is a busy man. You don't want to disturb him.

Go south and you will find the industrial sector of the city. Towering structures constantly manufacture more material for the city's use. It's not a clean job, but the workers are perfectly content in serving the city's greater good.

In the deepest basement of the foundries, stretching farther underground than might seem possible, you will find an aging worker. He has been working here all his life. He will explain to you the importance of helping others through hard labor and sacrifice of personal freedom. When you start feeling faint from the fumes in the factory, to which the workers have long ago grown accustomed, you will be escorted back to the surface.

You will wander the city for some time. Should you feel hungry or tired, you may stop at a restaurant or a hotel. Or simply request to stay at a private home. Do not worry about money. You are a guest, so they will serve you with the best food and give you the finest lodgings for free.

But at some point, determined by no one but yourself, you will find a particular door. The door leads to a room with a mirror. This is the only mirror in the city. In fact, it is the only reflective surface. It may be in the bathroom of a hotel, on the wall of someone's home, or lodged in the splendid decorations of one of its halls. Eventually you will find it, but only when you're ready.

When you look into the mirror, you will not see yourself. Instead, you will see the crumbling, destitute interior of the same building you know is behind you. Cobwebs occupy every corner, anything you'd seen hanging on the walls has long ago fallen to the ground and decayed into dust. The walls are brown and rotten, covered in stains and mold.

You will look into the mirror in wonder for at least several minutes. After an unknown period of time, your reflection will appear in the mirror. As this happens, you will find yourself in the other city. Leave the building.

It is always night here. The structures are falling apart all around you, lit by thousands of ancient, flickering lights built in grotesque shapes.

The citizens themselves, milling about in the streets, will avert their eyes. They won't respond to your questions, no matter how hard you try. Dressed in little more than rags, they will hurry with purpose to do their duties. They have no religion, no order.

Mirrors can be found everywhere in this world. They are not for vanity, for they look into the other side, the one whose opulence serves as a reminder for the residents of this city.

Go to the east and you will find the marketplace. There is no money here. The citizens can take whatever they want for free. Their plight gives them the perspective to take only that which they need.

Walk up to a solitary man sitting outside an old structure built of little more than scraps of metal and stone. He will explain how the citizens, most of them impoverished, have learned to not waste. Every citizen survives for himself but knows to be considerate to the others. He will recount the lives of many inhabitants of this city. You will sit through it all and, when he is done, get up and leave courteously. You may take food should you be hungry, but don't take more than you need.

Go through the marketplace to the north of the city. A small, secluded cluster of rectangular stone buildings houses a few simple laboratories filled with random examples of technology. The occupants of these rooms labor day and night to develop new scientific advances. A scientist sitting in front of a computing device, built of nothing but a mass of wires and several inert lights, will explain that their work will not benefit the city. He will assure you that the city is surviving perfectly well without the trinkets they build. Their pursuits serve no one but themselves.

Go west and you will find a mass of mismatched houses, all of them brown and gray, constructed haphazardly and out of order, seemingly from every material imaginable. Every building is about to fall apart in its own way, supported by pillars, girders, and stilts. Most of them have doors leading to the neighboring houses.

In front of a small house squeezed from both sides by two slightly larger ones, all of them perched precariously on a cliff overlooking a sea of more brown houses, you will find a man dressed much like the other citizens of the city. He will explain that, though crumbling and about to enter their final stages of decay, the houses form a cohesive system and would support each other forever. He will invite you into his house. You will already know what is to be found inside, so you will politely decline and head away from the residential district.

Go south and you will find a block of lonely factories, the electrical relays between their mechanisms and the city long ago fallen. Still running on power from a furnace in the center of the complex, they continue to manufacture machines and implements necessary to keep the process moving.

The only inhabitant who will pay attention to your inquiries is an aging worker toiling in the basement of the factory. Make sure to remember the way you came in because the workers are far too busy to guide you back to the surface. The man will explain that the factory runs not for the benefit of the city, but for its own purpose. Leave as soon as he finishes.

Finally, return to the city's center. You may find this a challenge because, though the summit is clearly visible from any point in the city, roads leading there are remarkably difficult to find. The citizens filling the streets in their unrelenting purpose will not have the time to help.

When you've succeeded in finding a way to the top, you will find yourself on a flat expanse paved in worn stone, hundreds of paces wide. The stone itself bears evidence of thousands of battles, fought and bitterly lost on this very ground. On the other end of the empty field is a small structure. You may recognize it as a futile attempt to rebuild the splendor of the other city hall. Inside you will find a decaying throne, seating the city's leader.

A small man, whose age you will be unable to determine, he is drowning in a delusion of power. He will weakly give you orders, which you will ignore. Eventually, tired of your insubordination, he will begin to talk about the city. He will tell you that the citizens exist exclusively for themselves, that they do not respect his authority as king. They survive without order. His beliefs, he will acknowledge, are a relic of the past.

You have reached perfection. Now you can never return.