A week passed since Mina bought Paracosmos.

I got home from work at the usual time, sweaty and ready for a cool shower. The past couple days had been the hottest of the year so far, and the heat always put me in an awful mood.

After Mina’s escape to buy the game, I made it a habit to check on her as soon as I got home, and although every single time I had checked she was playing Paracosmos, I still peeked in, just in case.

I dropped all of my things and stripped myself of my sweaty clothes. I put on pajamas that were on my bed, planning on throwing them into the laundry once I was done showering. I headed straight for Mina’s room. Would she even take a second to stop playing? Maybe she would this time.

I knocked and when she didn't answer, I opened the door loudly, making sure I made enough noise for her to notice my presence.

It was for nothing though, as I my earlier assumption was correct; she was hooked up to the PlayStation, almost completely still as she explored the virtual world within.

Seeing that she was so enraptured by the game made me stop in my tracks and feel a burning sensation in my heart. It was not the usual kind of lovely fire she usually made me feel; instead, this was a nasty burn, the kind that feels like I had just downed three shots of Scotch without bracing myself first. It hurt.

I forced myself to put my pain aside for a second and focus on what was in front of me. The only sounds that could be heard were the slight click-clack of the controller in Mina’s hands and the soft whirring of her PlayStation’s fans working hard to keep the console cool. You could hardly even hear her breathing. Was she really even alive? I was afraid to check. She already looked pretty malnourished as it was. Her clothes hung off her frame in an odd way, and the part of her face that that I could see had a sheen of sweat that was hard to ignore.

Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly glad she was distracted from her illness and her constant loneliness. I just...really missed her. She hadn't stopped playing the game at all since she bought it, and she seemed like she wasn't taking care of herself because of it.

In fact, that statement may not have been an exaggeration. I realized at that moment that I hadn't seen her come out to shower, eat or use the bathroom yet.

Maybe she just uses the bathroom while I'm at work?

I tried to remember if I really hadn't seen her outside of her room. I couldn't recall a single time within the week where I'd spotted her in the living room or the kitchen.

I warily made my way to her desk and caught the incredibly strong scent of sweat.

“Jesus, Mina!” I grabbed my nose and held it closed. I started breathing through my mouth, hoping that that would help, but the stench was so prominent that I started tasting it.

I coughed and tapped her shoulder, hoping that she'd remove the headset and explain to me why she reeked.

“Mina, hey! How long have you been playing?”

She gave me no response. I gently tugged on the headset, expecting Mina to at least react to me disturbing her game. Again, nothing, and I regretted not checking if she was actually alive.

I checked her pulse and felt under her nose for breathing, and everything seemed alright. So why wasn't she responding?

I gave her an exasperated sigh. “Mina, get out of the game and shower already. You smell like a boy’s locker room. Or, you could say that you have that distinct loser smell!” I expected the teasing to wake her from her zombie state. It did not.

I looked around her desk, searching for an ON/OFF button on the console, when my eye caught sight of a piece of paper, carefully folded with my name on it, on top of the PlayStation. In small, neat handwriting, it read:

 

 

 

 

 

Chaeyoung,

I'm sorry in advance. I know you will get mad when you're done reading this, and yes, you’ll have a reason to be... But please understand and meditate upon what I'm about to say.

I'm going to stay inside Paracosmos and let you buy all the things you need to live comfortably. I'll be out after two weeks or so, since I hope that by then, not having two mouths to feed will positively impact the spending. (My dad once told me that humans can survive three weeks without food. But I'm not about to starve for that long, so I'll go ⅔ and hope it was good enough, haha.)

Maybe there were better ways to not spend too much money on groceries, but this was the fastest solution. And the easiest. Take care of yourself while I'm gone. See you in two weeks. I love you, Chaengie ^^

 

 

I stared at the note for ten seconds before turning to Mina. I couldn't see her eyes, since the headset was in the way, but I knew she had a blank stare as she was playing. She had no idea how much pain she was causing me at that moment. Is that why she had been gone for so long? Had she really not eaten at all since stepping into Paracosmos?

“You idiot… How is that gonna solve anything? You really think that I wanted you gone?” I slammed my fist down on her desk. “And you can't survive more than 10 ing days without water! You’re gonna die in there!” I knew she wouldn't react to me, but it still felt good to shout something at her after seeing her make another mistake.

“Mina, get out of there, you can't starve yourself for two weeks! It’s only been one week and you already look like a skeleton!” I grabbed the headset and tried to pull it off her face. It was hard though, like as if the VR headset was a parasite, unwilling to let go of its host.

I loosened the retractable band on the back of it a little, and was about to remove it completely when I remembered something. I jumped away from Mina like as if I'd been shocked.

What if JYP didn't get rid of the really damaging bugs in the game?

Did he fix the bugs he'd told me about before? I wasn't sure. Mina told me the game was still buggy, but I didn't know if they were the bad ones that could seriously hurt someone. I didn't want Mina to experience any lag and get nauseous while playing the game. Or worse, I'd also hate to give my best friend brain damage because I made a careless mistake. As much as I trusted JYP and his employees in making sure all was well with the game, something in the back of my head told me that it was better to be safe than sorry.

I tried to stay calm. If I panicked now, I could make a huge mistake as well. I carefully tightened the band on the VR headset again and made sure it was on correctly. Once I was sure of that, I thought about what I should do next to make sure I hadn't just ed up big time.

I checked the small box that the game had come in, hoping to find a ‘How to Play’ guide that would tell me what to do. While searching, I noticed that all of the plastic that had been covering it was still strewn all over Mina’s bed. That was more than a little weird, because despite Mina always looking and dressing like an emo edgelord, she was actually a soft mama’s girl that always made sure her room was impeccable.

Was she really so desperate to escape reality that she abandoned her own values? Or was it that she really cared about me and wanted to keep me from starving as soon as possible? Either way, it was out of character, and once again, it worried me greatly.

The guide on how to play Paracosmos was nowhere to be found inside the box. I dropped down to the floor and started searching for it. Surely it had come with one, right? They had to give players warnings about epilepsy and all that in physical form, no? Or was that a thing of the past? Did they ever do that? I really had no clue, as I had never played a video game in my life. I wouldn't even play with Mina whenever she asked me to join her and her buddies in a game. I was starting to regret it now, as at least being in a room with her while she opened a new game would tell me if they carried guides and warnings.

There was nothing on the floor that resembled a game guide, so I got exasperated and pulled out my phone instead. I wasn't sure what to look up exactly, so I just googled Paracosmos danger brain damage release and hoped I'd get something that correlated with what I wanted to find. The stuff I got made my blood run cold. Most articles had long titles that were cut off on the results page, but they were enough on there for me to want to scream.

JYPE’s Newest Game Paracosmos Might Just Be A Danger…

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