“Haa… Haa…”
Breathing roughly, Idris stared at the monitor in front of him, his chest heaving up and down unevenly.
[Game Over]
Staring at the two words scrawled in deep red, he remained frozen for a few seconds before finally leaning back in his chair, snapping out of it.
“H-holy shit..”
He took a moment to recall everything that had happened and his subsequent reaction.
Then… slowly lifting his head, he stared at the camera.
’Thank god I’m not live.’
Had he been live then…
“No, it’s best not to think about it.”
Taking several deep breaths, Idris tried to steady himself, but to his dismay, the panic refused to fade. His hand kept trembling, and his heart pounded relentlessly against his chest.
’What’s going on with me? Why can’t I calm myself down? Damn it! Damn it!’
Taking several deep breaths, Idris tried to steady himself, but the fear refused to leave him. His hand wouldn’t stop shaking, and his heart slammed against his ribs with every passing second.
For whatever reason, he was reminded of what had transpired, and another wave of fear coursed through him.
It took at least five minutes for him to finally calm down as he blankly stared at the game.
“T-this makes no sense at all. Why am I still so hung up on the game?”
It shouldn’t be like this. He was someone who had ventured through some of the worst gates ever. How could he be scared of a game like this?
Lowering his head, he glanced at the box of beers that rested beneath the desk.
“Damn it! It’s because I’m drunk! That’s the only explanation!”
Looking towards the camera, Idris put it on stand-by before drinking a bottle of water in order to calm his mind down.
Then, pacing around the room for the next several minutes, he sat back down on his chair and booted up the game.
“Again!”
He didn’t believe for one second that he’d be scared this time.
Not only that, he made sure to dim the lights around him further as he turned on the camera again.
’Okay, round two. Since the cameras weren’t live, I can just erase that video and treat it as if it never existed. I’ll make sure this is the real video. Now that I know exactly what is happening, there’s no need for me to be scared.’
Not that he was going to be scared even if he didn’t know. He was drunk then, but he was much better now.
“Alright.”
Pressing start, a familiar view came before him.
“I thought you wouldn’t have come, officer.”
The familiar old lady’s voice echoed, and for the briefest of moments, his hand trembled.
However, he was quick to snap out of it as he clenched his teeth.
“Nothing. This is nothing…”
He kept mumbling the words under his breath as he restarted the game, his confidence shooting up with each subsequent room he passed.
However, his confidence didn’t last for very long.
“…”
By the time he reached the second floor, his entire body was drenched in sweat. His hand trembled, gripping the mouse so tightly it began to squeak under the pressure once more.
Everything was the same.
He was in the same room as before, and he no longer fell for the same trick as before.
This time, he was even more careful as his gaze hovered towards the leg of the desk. Clearly, his thoughts were wrong before. The real message was under the bed, and he brought the mouse towards the bed.
However, right as he did, he suddenly saw a shadow form right beneath the bed, stretching towards him, and his expression changed as he hastily turned around.
“….Shit!”
But right as he did, a figure appeared right behind him.
Idris’s face changed drastically, but it was too late.
“Aaahhhhh!!”
Bang!
His scream finally tore out as he tumbled back from his chair, his entire body trembling. He scrambled further away, eyes wide and quivering as they locked onto the massive [Game Over] hovering on the screen.
“Impossible. This… is impossible!”
He had been tricked again!
Sitting up, Idris’s trembling eyes settled onto the camera that was recording, and his face paled.
It was right as his thoughts drifted back to the game when he suddenly heard a faint trembling sound coming from his left, causing his body to twitch.
Trr—
“….!?”
Hasitantly looking in the direction of the vibration, Idris found it to be his phone, and he slowly reached for it.
It was there that he saw a simple message.
It came from Jamie.
It read;
[So? How was it? Was the game scary?]
His face flushed red.
***
“….Still no response?”
Looking at my phone, I was a little bit sad. It had been a while since I had sent the game over to Jamie, but I had yet to receive any words from him.
I was probably being a little impatient, but how could I not be?
I really was quite confident with my game.
I had spent quite a lot of time developing, and if one managed to reach the end, they’d notice a nice little twist.
But in order to do that, they’d need to get to the end.
“Oh, well.”
I sighed lightly.
“I’ll probably receive some feedback soon enough. I did think of giving the game to the exchange people, but they don’t seem very friendly.”
In that case…
“Should I have Kyle try the game?”
It was worth a shot. The last time I got him to play my game, it ended up in utter humiliation for me.
This time…
I was a lot more confident than I was before.
’Certainly, I’m sure he’ll at least react a little.’
That was all I needed.
Thinking about him showing some sort of reaction while playing my game brought a small smile to my face.
I couldn’t wait.
“With that being said…”
Turning my attention to my laptop, I opened the app and turned my attention towards the new area that had appeared. In fact, it had been there for quite a while, but I had been so preoccupied with the development of the game that I never really paid much attention to it.
But things were different now.
Waiting to receive feedback from Jamie, I didn’t really have much to do.
In that case, I could now focus do other things.
Like…
[Lucky Wheel x1]
“I almost completely forgot this was a thing.”
This was one of the rewards that was included in the previous quest. I did remember getting a little excited about it, but given everything that had happened and where my priorities had been for the past several weeks, I had completely forgotten about it.
Now that I was suddenly reminded, it was time for me to open up the reward.
“I wonder what I’ll get.”
Opening the wheel wasn’t very difficult. The moment I pressed on it, the screen changed, and a wheel of multiple colors appeared before me. The colors most likely indicated the type of reward. From items to software and so on.
There were all sorts of things written, and a large button appeared right below the wheel.
It read: [Start]
“Hoo.”
Letting out a few breaths, I pressed the button, and the wheel began to spin.
Trrrr—
It spun and spun and spun, alternating with all sorts of different colors as I stared at the screen in anticipation.
Every second dragged for what felt like an eternity, until—
It finally stopped.
Holding my breath, I followed the arrow and read the reward.
Yellow. Software.
“Mirror Voice?”
What in the world…?