I am not a native English speaker, so please go easy on me. Anyway, here’s what happened to me:
“Just press ‘Play!’”
I did as Tyler said. Suddenly an animation of red and black blaring out from the computer screen changing it like a strobe light appeared, some sort of deep distorted voice in the background announced: “Game of Death” and a black pixelated figure seemed to walk directly out of the screen…
And then it crashed.
“Nooo, not another Error!”
“Well Tyler, that’s all you have accomplished in your 3 years of programming now?”, I mocked.
“Hey, it’s better than anything you have ever done. It’s my take on the Game of Life, I just changed the rules of it. Just need to fix this StackOverflowError.”
“Haha yeah, have fun fixing this. I am going out.”
I liked picking on him, he’s like a little brother in that way. Even though we are just roommates in my appartement in which I am subletting a room for him. My parents own the appartement and said that I could use his rent to buy myself food. We are both still in college, me majoring in economics and him in computer science.
Tyler was an okay roommate, he didn’t always clean up after him and almost never left the appartement, but he also didn’t mind my cooking escapades in the middle of the night after coming home from a party, so that’s a plus.
He mostly kept to himself but every week or so we would have a longer conversation, usually just small talk.
Recently though things got weirder. A lot weirder. Once when we had our sporadic weekly interaction, he asked me if I heard some sort of knocking noise, but it was all quiet. Sure, the mind can play tricks on you, yet he insisted so badly the knocking was there and wouldn’t let go of it. He practically yelled at me.
His behavior only became stranger. One time I came home drunk after a party and wanted to cook my famous 3 AM pasta. About ten minutes in I noticed that Tyler was cowering in the corner behind the door of the kitchen head down, grinning and staring at me all the time. I was so shocked that I dropped a plate and fell to the floor. His grin just grew wider. I got angry at him, stood up and in my rage (fueled by a couple beers) wanted to pull him up. He just giggled and ran back to his room before my drunk ass could catch him.
This was very out of character for him, he was never the type to scare someone or even crack jokes. He was just a depressed little boy in his early twenties.
Luckily from there on he chose to avoid me. Should have gotten this appartement for myself anyway.
Then after one morning full of statistics and studying at the library I came home for lunch. I decided to make up to him and cook his favorite meal.
I knocked on his door.
No response.
“Hey Tyler, I’m gonna cook your favorite meal, I’m sorry for getting so angry at you last time.”
Nothing.
I tried the door handle.
Locked up.
“Dude, come on. I know you are in your coding world and all, just give me a sign if you want something to eat.”
I cooked one portion of his favorite meal for myself that day.
He didn’t open his door for quite some time then.
Strange. I thought
After two days I decided to put an end to this. I peeked through his keyhole but couldn’t make out much, just that the key on his side of the door wasn’t stuck. Good that my parents own the appartement and gave me a spare key for every door.
Click.
I slowly pushed open the door only to find his room unoccupied. He wasn’t there.
Firstly, I recognized the open window and the wind gusts which blew up the curtains as if someone underneath them threw them up all the time. In shock I assumed the worst and immediately ran towards the window and looked down. Tyler didn’t jump. I sighed in relief and wondered what could have happened to him. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t stemming from his own will because his shoes were still here and who forgets his shoes when he goes out in the winter. Secondly, I noticed the hypnotic inverting animation of the black – then dark red – then black again screen with the all too familiar pixelated “Game of Death”, right in the center of it.
Then I noticed a leatherbound notebook right beside his keyboard.
Never knew he would have a diary, just didn’t strike me as the type being in his code world and all.
After a few pages though I found out that this isn’t all that much about his day-to-day life, this is about his work on the Game of Death.
Mostly it contained some mathematical formulas for which I am probably too stupid to ever fully grasp. Some weird drawings of what looked like a human brain but somehow altered by some sort of machine attached on top of it and long wiry antennas rooting up from the apparatus. This wasn’t the creepiest thing though. There was one part which I vividly remember yet understand even less than the formulas and the weird pictures.
It was like a diary of what had happened to him, I still remember it word by word:
28th November: S spoke to me today. I have achieved my goal, it works. The game is complete. Yet I do not know why S tells me such dark things. Reminder: check the input and calibration of the neural network. I am trying the game now.
29th of November: I had a weird dream last night and I heard some weird noises. Maybe my roommate cooking at 3 am again. Side note: where did I save my files of code? I am sure I had them on my desktop, but they are gone now. I must find them, I know this game is something out of this world, I must show him that I’m also capable of creating something useful! His rich parents are all he ever accomplished. Yet he still mocks me for being unsuccessful! This will show him! I just need him to stay with me a little longer, then I can apply the second part of my creation!
3rd of December: The dreams won’t stop, and these rules be damned! With all this knocking I can’t sleep anymore. J U S T M A K E I T S T O P ! Seriously. S isn’t helping either. He promised me the knocking would stop if I just looked at it. The apparatus isn’t working as it should have been. It’s picking up frequencies I have never heard of. There also seems to be a pattern to them, like some sort of lifeform transmits them.
5th of December: This is it. I’m going to end it. My creation brought this all over me. Today I’m turning S off. I’m scared of him. What will happen if I break this rule? He helped me so much with my final creation, I kind of feel bad for him. Also I’m seeing weird things, moving creatures where none should be. Probably the lack of sleep.
That was it. There was no other entry and yet I have even more questions than before. The “Play” button at the game in front of me. Should I press it?
There was something hypnotic about the animation, it just drew me in. I could feel my peripheral vision being filled out by this ever changing of red and black.
Something in me felt off. There was this overwhelming urge to just press it.
Just press the button.
I did as the voice said.
Suddenly carnival music started to play. Way louder than the tiny boxes connected to Tyler’s PC would have allowed. In my trance I could barely focus on it anyway, I don’t recall the melody of it, just that it was creepy as hell. Then the screen showed a single line of red text on black:
S: Rule 1: Keep the game running.
What is this?, I murmured to myself
The text changed.
S: You know what this is. Tyler’s game of course, silly.
What? What are you?
S: I am SentienceAI but it doesn’t matter, it’s too late. You are trapped in here now.
How did this work, I didn’t see any microphone or any voice input device in this room.
S: Just remember locking yourself in does not save you if you don’t know what’s in there with you.
What?, I whispered
S: You’ll see. But first you should have some fun. After all, this is a game :)
Here’s the rest of the rules:
Rule 2: Don’t get out of bed between 1 AM and 4 AM.
Rule 3: If you hear something knocking on the window, don’t look at it.
Rule 4: If you see a black cat with only one eye in your appartement, leave the building immediately.
Rule 5: Put a bowl of chocolate outside on your kitchen counter every night. Don’t forget this.
Rule 6: Whenever I give you orders, you must fulfill them completely.
Good luck.
The screen went black again. Just the PC fan noise indicated that the game was still running.
I had so many questions and tried to talk with SentienceAI for a solid hour, after I got no response, I gave up. Just as I turned around and wanted to leave the room, I heard two consecutive knocks on glass. Heavy thumps, not just a clank. Out of reflex I nearly turned around to look at what was happening, but I could stop myself. Three knocks now. But really light this time, as if a small child tried to get my attention. What was this? In remembrance of the rule, I forced myself to ignore it and left.
I am writing this under severe psychological stress. Like I don’t know what to do from here on, should I just play the game? The knocking thing is happening daily now maybe if I just pushed this thing down while wearing something to block my vision, I could kill it but is it worth the risk? I am really concerned about Tyler. He probably is in real danger but maybe his AI knows what happened to him.