x
I was always a stressed individual. I would work for around 120 hours every week and continue the same schedule I had for years. Finally, I started to try something different. I bought a VR headset last week and also bought a game about a stress-free garden.
Honestly, I had no idea how to use these things. After all, I worked the same office job for years now, with the same people, doing the same things. I’m 56 years old now, which meant I worked there for 10 years.
I walked back to my apartment building that must’ve been in some sort of ghost town. Nobody walked down the sidewalk or even drove down the street. It felt strange not seeing any vehicles outside, but it was very likely that I just came home during everyone else's working hours.
As I walked inside and put on the headset, a welcome screen appeared. It warned me not to play for more than six hours a day. I pressed continue and navigated my way through the main menu.
Upon first look, the garden was extremely beautiful. It was very expansive, and flowers covered every corner of the area. However, the flowers were very limited. The only flowers in the garden were daffodils and tulips. There was a large fountain in the center, and a hedge maze in the back.
As I closed my eyes and tried to rest, I felt a change in the temperature. I looked back down at the flowers and realized that they weren’t the same. They now changed into daisies and marigolds. Did I do that by accident somehow? I shrugged it off and closed my eyes again.
After a few seconds, the sky became completely dark. I opened the settings to see if there was some sort of day and night cycle. Strangely enough, there wasn’t one. The only thing I could do was exit the game. I sighed, and walked around the park.
Honestly, I was a clumsy fool and never looked where I was going. I bumped into a stone statue. The statue was an angel that stood eight feet tall and had six arms. Two covered her eyes, two covered her ears, and two covered her mouth. The multiple cracks made it look ancient.
“How could I forget you were here?” I said, chuckling lightly. I wandered towards the back of the area where I found a large pond, with small fish and ducks swimming about inside. “Was this always here?” I asked myself. I looked around and saw the statue, the fountain, the small hut, and the pond.
“I guess so.” I started walking to the small hut and found a bag of bread. It made me think about how long I went without food. I went back to the pond and started tossing the bread to the ducks. The ducks rushed over towards the bread and ate it up within seconds.
As I continued to feed them, I suddenly started feeling cold. Eventually, I started seeing snow falling. Was this supposed to be part of the experience? I scrolled through the settings again and turned off the snow. I felt as if that wasn’t in the settings before.
As I clicked off the settings, I found myself inside of a hedge maze. I wandered about the maze and encountered many dead ends. After what felt like an hour, I finally escaped. Only to see two groups of shadow-like men with red eyes lined up perfectly on the opposite sides of the path.
I walked over and tapped on one of the men’s shoulders. “How did you get here?” I asked. There was no response. Instead, he stayed in the same spot, not moving an inch. I followed my instincts and walked down the pathway, only to find myself back at the fountain.
On the fountain was a small note that read, ‘Please, take off the headset!’. However, before I could do anything, two large arms emerged from the water. They started choking me. I started kicking and punching at the arms, and finally got them off. I backed away from the fountain and exited the simulation.
I was breathing heavily. I looked around and realized that I was still in my apartment. I threw the VR headset to the ground, shattering it. From that day, I swore that I would not touch another headset and never play games again.
As I went back to work the next day, I found myself working harder than before, and making more progress. However, as I was working, I received an email from my boss. I opened my email and the contents shocked me. In big and bold letters it said, ‘New level has been achieved! Please, take off the headset!’.
ns 18.68.41.146da2
