Brian listened carefully to the menu options.
***
> Welcome to Borae-Serve.
> Please choose from one of the following options.
> 1: File Report
> 2: Request Maintenance
> 3: Play a Game
***
Play a game? Is this a joke?
***
> Option 3 selected. Please stand by...
***
Brian felt a bit odd for a moment, and then suddenly found himself standing in a strange room.
What? Where the heck am I?
> Welcome to Zed's Adventure. A game by Zed.
Like on the phone call, Brian could see and hear this text in his head.
It's like some kind of virtual reality. TV, how do I get out of here? ...TV?
Brian waited for a moment, but there was no answer. Guess I'm on my own, he thought.
He looked around the room.
> There are no obvious exits.
That's interesting. The text/sound seems to be responding to what I do.
The room resembled a waiting room from a doctor's office or something, except there were no doors, and no front desk or window. There were a few chairs along the wall, a small table with a single magazine, and a bland-colored painting on the wall—that was about it.
Brian started to look at the magazine.
>Just an ordinary, uninteresting magazine.
He put his hands in his pockets, and sighed, trying to think of what to try next.
> You are empty-handed.
What? He pulled his hands out of his pockets and put them back in.
> You are empty-handed.
This just gets weirder and weirder.
He looked around the room and noticed a light switch on the wall. He flipped it, and the room went dark.
> It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
That doesn't sound good. He quickly flipped the switch again, and the lights came back on.
Brian shook his head. Have to find a way out of here. What else is in here?
He walked over to the painting and looked at it closely. It depicted a seaside shoreline at sunset. He tried to see if he could take it off the wall. It wouldn't budge, and he cut his hand on the bottom right corner of the frame. Looking closely at the spot that cut him, he noticed a small nail point sticking out.
> The painting is attached firmly to the wall. You prick your hand on the bottom corner of the picture frame. Ouch!
I noticed.
What's the point of a Virtual Reality game that has text output, describing stuff I can already see, and telling me stuff I already know?
Brian frowned. Unless...
He walked over to the small table again, picked up the magazine, and looked at the cover. It was titled Byte, and dated December 1980. There was a picture of a guy staring intently at some kind of old computer.
> Just an ordinary, uninteresting magazine.
Brian ignored the narration and began flipping through the magazine. About two-thirds of the way through, a business-card-sized piece of paper fell out, fluttering to the floor.
> Your score has increased by 2! (2/10)
Nice! So I need to do the opposite of what the text suggests.
Brian picked up the piece of paper.
> Just a blank piece of paper.
It did look blank. He flipped it over.
> Just a blank piece of paper.
Whatever. He put it in his pocket.
> You are carrying:
A glass
What? Brian took the paper back out and looked at it again. It was still just a blank piece of paper.
Stuck inside a buggy Virtual Reality text game. Wonderful. Brian shrugged and put the paper back in his pocket. He glanced around the room again. What could be concealing something?
He looked more closely at the table with the magazine. It was the type of table that might have a drawer, but there was no drawer on the side facing outward from the wall. He pulled the table away from the wall and turned it around. There was a drawer! He pulled it open, revealing a little book and a compass.
> Your score has increased by 2! (4/10)
The book had nothing printed on the outside. He opened it up and thumbed through some pages. Blank. He quickly flipped through the whole thing; all blank. He put the book in his back pocket.
> You are carrying:
A glass
A Zed's journal
I guess Zed didn't have much going on in his life.
Brian picked up the compass and looked at it. Maybe it wasn't a compass after all. Clockwise from the top, the letters read F, R, B, L, and the needle was fixed on the F position.
Brian found himself chuckling, in spite of his situation. Forward, Right, Back, Left. Must be a joke.
He put the compass in his pocket to see what the game would call it.
> You are carrying:
A glass
A Zed's journal
A navigation device
Navigation device? Nice. Well, it must do something.
Then Brian had an idea. He pulled the compass back out and began sweeping it slowly around the room. As he swept past the blank wall opposite the table and chairs, the needle began to glow brightly.
So that's forward, then. This is the direction I'm supposed to go?
Brian walked up to the wall and felt it carefully with his hands, sweeping gently over every part of the surface, but he felt nothing special.
"Ugg, I'm stumped," he said aloud.
Next, Brian tried a few random things, like breaking the wall with his foot (it didn't work), then rolling the magazine up and whacking stuff with it, but he wasn't getting anywhere. Finally, he flipped the light switch again.
> It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Brian waited for a moment, but nothing happened. He began to slowly walk toward the wall in the dark.
> Oh, no! You have walked into the clutches of a lurking grue!
**** You have died ****
Thank you for playing Zed's Adventure.
YOU ARE READING
Brian Saves the World, Maybe
Science FictionBrian Walker, the IT guy at a small government contractor, has two problems. First, he hasn't had his morning coffee, and second, a strange voice in his head claims an alien invasion is underway. Solving the least pressing of the two should be prett...
