The Digital Worlds

2. where it all began

I laid down in my bed.

The game put you to sleep while you played, it takes part of your mind and lets you play the game through your eyes, I saw stories where blind men from birth saw color for the first time. Really emotional stuff.

Anyways, my parents would tell me I could play my game and about 1-5  hours latter they would turn it off. basically the game had two menus, one for the 'Outsider' and one for the 'Player'. the player would obviously be playing the game while the outsider could turn it off.

The outsider had a few modes, there were 'notifications' where a person could tell the player to exit the game. Next was warnings, big and huge messages would show and make the game nearly impossible and finally there was 'force shut down'. I bet you can tell what that mode did.

I was comfortable in my room, not to say it was the best. like it had fountains that spilled Dr Pepper and a 'mini go-cart' you could ride around.

No, my room was simple, a bed, a table, a TV.

The usual stuff.

"2 hours!!" My parents shouted from downstairs "Then Aunt Cassie is coming over."

I liked my Aunt, she was so sweet and always told the best stories, apparently she used to be a diver and told many strange and also nightmare inducing tales.

my favorite was of when she found a sports bag at the bottom of the Marianas trench, inside there was a document that when you looked at it, you went insane.

Gladly my Aunt didn't get to see but I always wondered, what if she had and wasn't telling me....

My parents took these stories as complete nonsense as they had already saw news coverage on what was at the bottom of that endless chasm. But as a child, I listened to her fascinating experience with a giddy-eyed grin on my face, I loved the ocean but these tales only fueled my passion.

As the game started up, I could feel my strength on my body weaken as I fell on my pillow. after 5 seconds of silence some interesting and 'adventure montage' like music started.

It was interesting how it worked. The only way to describe it is like when you think of the tune of a song and you know every beat and the time between them.

Next a bright screen appeared, it was a mash of different types of areas and environments with huge, bold letters spelling out 'Dimension Never Ending'. and I have to admit I was impressed, each and every leaf on the forest letter was animated, this letter, which took the shape of an 'E' made out of cliffs and waterfalls along with heavy fauna, was the prettiest.

There were others too. A big eruption of flames which took the shape of the beginning letter, a black and tar like one in the shape of a 'N' and a 'M' which seemed to be in the shape of tall and wide cliffs but this design was kind of expected.

As I entered, I was greeted with a few things before starting.

There was the vague directions on how to move which simply stated 'do it your own way'. Next the screens about various news, videos and tutorials for people that 'weren't quite sure'.

one news coverage did catch my eye though, it was about how the suicide rates in both Japan and China had risen dramatically over the past few months, I didn't read into it as I did only have two hours left.

But i couldn't help but think, I knew about how suicide was a problem but nothing like this had happened on a scale this large. There was that 'Blue Whale' thing but I saw a video explaining that it was very likely that it was a hoax.

Finally, there was a screen.....wait,  why am I using the word 'screen' so much, all this was in my head.........

Maybe screen works. I can't think of another word

The last screen was a 'Pick Your Class' type of thing, there were over 500 of choices, assassins, famous stars that would have lived in this world, a range of working class types, various creatures and animals for some reason. I'm very sure I saw a 'Hooker' at one stage but couldn't find it again.

Eventually I had taken a few different classes for my final choice and put them in a seperate tab, these included but were not limited to,

-A Sea Creature (you spawned in the ocean and had to eat to grow)

-A Blacksmith (you created weapons and sold them, that's it)

-A Dungeon Keeper (it was your job to look after certain dungeons that didn't already have a master).

-and a 'Rider' (you had low stats but had the ability to 'charm creatures, from there you could train them [this was already an option but is much easier if you choose this class as you have most of the skills necessary for this]).

But one that really took my eye was a class that didn't necessarily have a name, instead, it was just a jumble of random letters like someone had smashed their hands against their keyboard and this was the outcome.

The description was the same but I could make out only two words which seamed to be furthest apart

GOD and PESTILENCE

Ominous right? Well, I'd cheated before in many other games, using console commands, exploiting glitches and even used to cartridge tilt when my parents got me one of those older consoles.

I looked around on the internet to see if this was some sort of way the developers could separate cheaters from actual game servers but I found nothing, less than nothing. not even a mention of the second word.

I checked my timer and was shocked to see I'd already spent half an hour searching for this character.

I picked the 'glitched out' one seeing as I wanted to try something new and a small loading screen popped up, then there was the warning that nearly every game had. it read

WARNING

This game contains graphical content that many viewers may find discomforting

do not play for more than 1-6 hours and after playing please replenish your needs such as hunger, thirst etc.

If feeling high levels of pain in 'realistic mode' it is advised you turn off this mode and continue normally.

We hope you enjoy our work and effort.

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The ground hit hard, not like I fell, but the sudden realization of it being there made a lot of discomfort in my body.

It took me a moment to realize I was face down in the middle of a dying field.

The rotting wheat was unusual to see but absolutely disgusting to smell.

I got up, brushed the dirt off of my clothes and looked around, there wasn't a single person.

no NPCs

no Players

no Enemies

Not even a god damn animal

I was alone

Great way to start a game.