Polybius

You are David Anderson, a 25 year old high school dropout who inherited an old arcade store from an uncle. Deciding to try your hand at running it, you stumble upon a strange arcade machine named Polybius in a hidden storeroom. Despite its age, the game appeared to be a VR experience that according to the manual, could alter the user's mind. It was also a huge, futuristic pod that clearly did not fit with the other machines.

You initially give it little thought. After cleaning up the place and hiring a few helping hands, you reopen the arcade to a surprisingly good reception. Retro was trending, and many adults enjoyed the nostalgia of the arcade games. It appeared your lucky break had finally arrived. The business was profitable, and for once you were not slaving away for minimum wage.

"Dude, this Polybius game is amazing!" One customer gushed as they were leaving. The strange machine came back to your mind. You looked through the manual again, and found instructions to hook it up to your computer and a CD to install the control program.

Your curiosity piqued, you go about installing this control program. When launched, you were faced with a complex interface with many windows and buttons, though most of it was currently blank.

One window showed a camera feed inside Polybius's pod. Someone was climbing in. The bright green tips of the girl's short black hair identified her as Sadie, a hired help at the arcade. It was the end of her shift and it was your policy to allow them free access to the machines when no one else was using them.

You watched Sadie slip the headset on and begin a new game. You felt a little guilty spying on the girl. Frankly you've always thought she was really hot, and only professionalism had stopped you from hitting on her. Sadie was only eighteen years old and you didn't want to make her uncomfortable at her first job.

The program on your computer was soon populated by various metrics. Half of it you could not understand. The other half...

"Age? Name? Sexuality?" The data on the user filled in line by line, and as impossible as it sounded, was true as far as you were aware. Under sexuality, it read "Homosexual (85.2%)". You certainly could not verify that as Sadie had never mentioned it.

Sadie began playing the game. There was another window that showed her in game state. Polybius appeared to be a first person adventure game with simplified, blocky graphics. From what your customers have been telling you, the responsiveness of the game and it's unpredictable levels were the main draw.

You then notice the program had a section labelled "Commands", which had a scrollable list of actions such as "Freeze", "Mind Wipe", "Implant Suggestion", and so on. Were these like admin commands? You selected "Freeze". Sure enough, Sadie stopped moving. You laughed as she was assaulted by a bunch of low-polygon enemies in game without being able to resist. This was perfect for pulling a prank!

"Wait... why isn't she freaking out?" You looked at the camera feed and Sadie had no reaction to her character being frozen. In fact, it looked like the camera feed was frozen as well. Sadie was not moving the VR controllers an inch.

"Weird..." Minutes pass and she still did not move, even after she had died in game and respawned. You leave your office to check on her. Inside the pod, Sadie was standing stiffly, her eyes obscured by the headset. You shook her shoulder.

"Sadie. Sadie! Are you okay?" She did not move. There was a moment of panic as various scenarios played through your mind. A very unlikely one stuck. The freeze command. You went back to your computer and unticked the command, and Sadie immediately resumed motion.

"What? How did I die? Weird." You heard her say. Your eyes widen as you realize there might have been a reason the machine was sealed away.