The Mars Car
The colt looked up at the blood-red sky, with dangerous meteors crashing down, the whole ground shaking underneath him. "Ha... it's not just a game after all." He weakly laughed, shaking with fear. As he narrowly ran into a cave, he breathed a sigh of relief, collapsing down, remembering about how he had ended up here.
It was merely one day ago when Button was still blissfully in his sweet home, without a worry. "Yeah, flank that guy! Shoot him in the chest!" Button Mash yelled out to his team. He had been playing the hottest VR game around, going day and night trying to achieve a top rank. But he didn't realize that he was so exhausted he was just barely hanging on. As the title showed the words "VICTORY", Button closed his eyes, still muttering: "wait... just one more game..." and succumbed to his sleep.
Next thing he knew, Mash saw himself in front of a train car. He thought he had mistakenly clicked on something in his dreams. Still not quite thinking, he slowly trotted into there, excited about more inventive games, finding himself in a brand new level. Or so it seemed. As he glanced around the grassy field, he tilted his head, interested in what was going on. "Welcome, passenger!" A voice stated, with a black and white round robot on the screen, "My name is One-One! I'm here to show you how to..." but he was already off himself to find out this game. He hated tutorials and how they guided you hoof to hoof. He was a hardcore gamer through and through, and he was not about to give up despite the strangely realistic interface. As he tapped everywhere, struggling to bring up the menu, he rolled his eyes and reluctantly focused his attention back to the screen.
"...on your hoof, you'll find a number," the robot continued, "you want that number to go down to zero!" But then contradicted itself immediately with a sad face, "or you can just make your number go high to stay on the train..."
So the end of the demo/game is having your number be zero? Interesting...is it a reverse score system? As Button glanced down, he saw a "452" glowing in green. Well, if this game is fun, I guess I'll stay on here for longer. And so Button looked around his surroundings. A decorated garden made way for a pavilion, where butterflies flitted about and a stone chair invited him to sit there and appreciate the view. The trees were magnificent, as Button noted he would have to give well-deserved praise for the graphics of the game. As he looked left and right, he could've sworn he felt the slight warmth of the sun on his back as he trotted forward. Even for an action-oriented gamer like him, he admitted, this was a great beginner area. Especially to introduce movement. He nodded, opening a red door and barely glancing back.
He blinked in confusion as he saw the outside of the car. This was a unique transition system -- presenting level as train cars? That was a first. Not to mention he couldn't hear any foreshadowing from within the car. But Button supposed the creators must've had a reason for this design. He didn't like how narrow the walkway was, but he suspected that the next levels' walkways might be a crucial place for rest or a dangerous intersection, should something chase you outside of the level. He shrugged and moved on to the next train.
The wind blew around the dust, making it hard to see anything. The red ground endlessly stretched on, and the sky was a scarlet color. Various caves lied in the barren landscape, with glints here and there lighting up the dark, hinting at a reward. Being a fast speed-runner who loved efficiency, Button immediately went for the exit. But as he tried the red door, he found that it was stuck. Worse yet, in front of a locked red door was a countdown. And so Button decided to go into the caves instead while complaining: "Ugh! Exploration missions. These are the worst." As Button wandered into them, he found fireflies that lit up the path, a helpful guide for his way through. With some seemingly magical fountain gatherings, he heard an ominous sound. Indeed, as he continued through multiple caves, he found the number consistently going down. "Too easy!" he remarked, still mildly annoyed at the count-down.
But as Button walked to the last cave, bored out of his wits, he saw out in the sky, multiple lights falling directly towards him. An earthquake begun, nearly offsetting his balance, with the wind only making things worse. As he tried to dodge out of the way in instinct, he hit the ground, bruising his sides. "Ouch!" He yelped out, then slowly realized something was wrong. Games didn't make you feel pain. And he was getting a bit tired from all this walking. "No..." he said, his face paling at the possibilities. As his pace sped up, he grew more nervous and the meteors almost landed right beside him. He hated to admit it, but now he wanted to go back. As he desperately looked at his number, he was crestfallen to see that it was even higher-- "496".
"Ha... it's not just a game after all." He had said a few minutes ago. As the meteors subsided, tears began falling down Button's face as he realized his terrible mistake. Just how was he going to get back? Why didn't he pay attention to the surroundings more? Was every single "level" of this insanity equally dangerous and painful? He laid there for a few minutes, still thinking about his parents' previous warnings and how gaming was bad for him. As he stumbled out of the train, he hesitated before going into the next car. But he knew that he had to find a way out of here, video game or not.