You woke up on a bed, but it wasn't the one in your room. In fact, the room you woke up in was different from yours, although it bore some superficial resemblance.
'Did someone kidnap me?!' You panicked, looked down and then patted your body, wondering if, as the movies said, someone took your kidneys, or any other important organ, but after inspecting yourself for a few minutes, you found no recent scars nor any signs of any kind of surgery. You breathed in relief, only to slap yourself to remind yourself of the seriousness of your situation.
'They may not have kidnapped me to harvest organs, but what if they want a ransom?!' You then thought and, mostly fueled by the sheer adrenaline that coursed through your veins, you got up and rather recklessly exited the bedroom you were in. To your surprise, you found that you were in a house, and there was nobody else around besides yourself.
'If I had been kidnapped there should be people guarding, and I should be bound in some way... Are they this confident that I won't or can't escape?' You scratched your chin in thought.
'Maybe they're guarding outside the house? Or maybe they're testing whether or not I plan on escaping...' But as you walked into the living room and glanced out the windows, you found no signs of anybody whatsoever. You scratched your head, unable to make sense of this situation. Since your initial panic began to wear out, you then pondered on other things you ignored at first. You walked to the door that led to the bedroom and touched it with your hand. It looked like wood, but it felt like plastic, and of the cheap kind.
'Huh? This is odd...' You thought. You then touched the nearby walls only to find they were made of the same kind of plastic, and as you looked around, most of the things in this house seemed to be made of some kind of plastic. The only exception so far was the refrigerator, which was metallic and functional. You saw a few bottles of cold water inside, but decided not to push your luck so much, since you still had no idea where on Earth you were.
The house resembled yours, but it was like a rather poor replica, or rather, the fact most of it was made of plastic gave it a bizarre look you simply couldn't ignore. Somehow, you felt like you should only wander outside after you checked absolutely everything in this strange home, and so, you focused on trying to get any clues on your current location from what you could find. A few moments later, in a moment of clarity, you reached into your pocket and found that you still had your phone. Fully charged at that. The memories came flooding back to your mind, as you remembered that weird message you thought was an invitation for beta testing some new game, only to get somehow tasered by your own phone, and knocked out.
You hesitated, wondering if your phone would act out again, but since you were already holding it in your hand, you decided to brave through your fears and unlock the screen. Much to your relief, your phone looked the same, with the same wallpaper and apps you had installed, but upon closer inspection, you found an app that wasn't there before.
'X-Plore' It read, its logo was a green glowing X in a black background, and it reminded you of the old Xbox logo. It looked suspiciously like a gaming app, but you felt that might have been an intentional design choice. At the very least, you could distinctly recall not ever seeing this app before, nor having installed it yourself. With a deep breath, and almost praying a Hail Mary you reluctantly tapped the app. Once you did, your phone's screen turned black, and mostly green letters appeared.
[Welcome to our very first testing of A.R. This application will serve as your main guide as you explore A.R's]
'Well, that's a first. But what the hell is an A.R.?' You thought, and tapped the initials since they were in blue, which seemed to lead to a link, or something.
[A.R: Stands for Alternate Reality, also known as Parallel Universes among other terms. These are worlds that are incredibly similar to ours, but with one or a few key differences, the magnitude of which is highly variable, as some could be very minor and others could be really drastic.]
"Okay, that's one question that I got answered... but seriously, what?! There's no way this can be real... Looks like the introduction for a game..." You muttered as you tapped the 'Back' button on your phone to get back to the previous screen.
[The A.R. testing program may resemble a game, but it's not. It's a serious, new and exciting field of scientific investigation, for which we've recruited many brave volunteers such as yourself to help us learn more about them]
Your eyes widened, as that text only appeared after you quietly talked to yourself, and made you raise an eyebrow.
'Is someone listening in? Besides... it looks like they're trying hard to sell this story...' You thought.
[You can consult your personal info and what data we've gathered on your current A.R so far by tapping the Status Menu]
That text appeared several seconds after the previous one, as if the app were talking to you, which you found unnerving. Still, with no further leads, you tapped said menu, where a significant amount of information appeared.
[A.R. ID: SHKSZ-0110]
[A.R. Status: Largely unexplored]
[A.R. Estimated similarity to Home Reality: 55%]
[A.R. Environmental Status: Compatible]
=====================================
[Subject ID: BLXY-0091]
[Currently participating in Beta Test A.R-M.S]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 17]
[Ethnicity: Mixed Hispanic]
[Academic Level: Highschool (Sophomore)]
[Blood Type: B+]
[Current status: Altered]
After scrolling down to see your personal status, you shuddered when you saw your blood type listed, as well as your age, ethnicity and academic level, that these people got this kind of info on you gave you chills. When you read "[Current status: Altered]" you couldn't help but shudder. You felt as if this should've read 'Normal' instead.
It looked like there was more info, and after taking a deep breath in an attempt to give yourself courage, you scrolled farther down, and when you did, your heart skipped a beat as you read the next pieces of information.
[Starting height: 6'3" / 190cm]
After that, you read...
'Did someone kidnap me?!' You panicked, looked down and then patted your body, wondering if, as the movies said, someone took your kidneys, or any other important organ, but after inspecting yourself for a few minutes, you found no recent scars nor any signs of any kind of surgery. You breathed in relief, only to slap yourself to remind yourself of the seriousness of your situation.
'They may not have kidnapped me to harvest organs, but what if they want a ransom?!' You then thought and, mostly fueled by the sheer adrenaline that coursed through your veins, you got up and rather recklessly exited the bedroom you were in. To your surprise, you found that you were in a house, and there was nobody else around besides yourself.
'If I had been kidnapped there should be people guarding, and I should be bound in some way... Are they this confident that I won't or can't escape?' You scratched your chin in thought.
'Maybe they're guarding outside the house? Or maybe they're testing whether or not I plan on escaping...' But as you walked into the living room and glanced out the windows, you found no signs of anybody whatsoever. You scratched your head, unable to make sense of this situation. Since your initial panic began to wear out, you then pondered on other things you ignored at first. You walked to the door that led to the bedroom and touched it with your hand. It looked like wood, but it felt like plastic, and of the cheap kind.
'Huh? This is odd...' You thought. You then touched the nearby walls only to find they were made of the same kind of plastic, and as you looked around, most of the things in this house seemed to be made of some kind of plastic. The only exception so far was the refrigerator, which was metallic and functional. You saw a few bottles of cold water inside, but decided not to push your luck so much, since you still had no idea where on Earth you were.
The house resembled yours, but it was like a rather poor replica, or rather, the fact most of it was made of plastic gave it a bizarre look you simply couldn't ignore. Somehow, you felt like you should only wander outside after you checked absolutely everything in this strange home, and so, you focused on trying to get any clues on your current location from what you could find. A few moments later, in a moment of clarity, you reached into your pocket and found that you still had your phone. Fully charged at that. The memories came flooding back to your mind, as you remembered that weird message you thought was an invitation for beta testing some new game, only to get somehow tasered by your own phone, and knocked out.
You hesitated, wondering if your phone would act out again, but since you were already holding it in your hand, you decided to brave through your fears and unlock the screen. Much to your relief, your phone looked the same, with the same wallpaper and apps you had installed, but upon closer inspection, you found an app that wasn't there before.
'X-Plore' It read, its logo was a green glowing X in a black background, and it reminded you of the old Xbox logo. It looked suspiciously like a gaming app, but you felt that might have been an intentional design choice. At the very least, you could distinctly recall not ever seeing this app before, nor having installed it yourself. With a deep breath, and almost praying a Hail Mary you reluctantly tapped the app. Once you did, your phone's screen turned black, and mostly green letters appeared.
[Welcome to our very first testing of A.R. This application will serve as your main guide as you explore A.R's]
'Well, that's a first. But what the hell is an A.R.?' You thought, and tapped the initials since they were in blue, which seemed to lead to a link, or something.
[A.R: Stands for Alternate Reality, also known as Parallel Universes among other terms. These are worlds that are incredibly similar to ours, but with one or a few key differences, the magnitude of which is highly variable, as some could be very minor and others could be really drastic.]
"Okay, that's one question that I got answered... but seriously, what?! There's no way this can be real... Looks like the introduction for a game..." You muttered as you tapped the 'Back' button on your phone to get back to the previous screen.
[The A.R. testing program may resemble a game, but it's not. It's a serious, new and exciting field of scientific investigation, for which we've recruited many brave volunteers such as yourself to help us learn more about them]
Your eyes widened, as that text only appeared after you quietly talked to yourself, and made you raise an eyebrow.
'Is someone listening in? Besides... it looks like they're trying hard to sell this story...' You thought.
[You can consult your personal info and what data we've gathered on your current A.R so far by tapping the Status Menu]
That text appeared several seconds after the previous one, as if the app were talking to you, which you found unnerving. Still, with no further leads, you tapped said menu, where a significant amount of information appeared.
[A.R. ID: SHKSZ-0110]
[A.R. Status: Largely unexplored]
[A.R. Estimated similarity to Home Reality: 55%]
[A.R. Environmental Status: Compatible]
=====================================
[Subject ID: BLXY-0091]
[Currently participating in Beta Test A.R-M.S]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 17]
[Ethnicity: Mixed Hispanic]
[Academic Level: Highschool (Sophomore)]
[Blood Type: B+]
[Current status: Altered]
After scrolling down to see your personal status, you shuddered when you saw your blood type listed, as well as your age, ethnicity and academic level, that these people got this kind of info on you gave you chills. When you read "[Current status: Altered]" you couldn't help but shudder. You felt as if this should've read 'Normal' instead.
It looked like there was more info, and after taking a deep breath in an attempt to give yourself courage, you scrolled farther down, and when you did, your heart skipped a beat as you read the next pieces of information.
[Starting height: 6'3" / 190cm]
After that, you read...
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May 12, 2023
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