The factory air was thick with dust and cold metal. Rusted pipes lined the ceilings, and broken equipment littered the corners like the place had been abandoned mid-collapse.
"Okay… this place is already giving me bad vibes," LunaByte said, scanning with her flashlight.
The ship door had closed behind them with a solid clang, but when Luna nervously turned around to leave, she found the green exit panel blinking softly.
"It's not locked?" she said, surprised. "We can just… go?"
"Looks like it," Brogan replied. "That's actually kind of a relief."
"I thought we were trapped," Zane muttered.
Vexxie chuckled. "Welcome to anxiety gaming."
They regrouped and started exploring. The game had told them almost nothing—no tutorial, no enemies listed, just one goal: collect scrap and make money.
As they moved through the factory halls, the game's environment pulled them in deeper. The lighting was perfect—dim, realistic, unnerving. Every footstep echoed. Every corner looked like something might be watching.
[Scrap Collected: 12 / 130]
"Graphics are nuts," Zane whispered. "I still can't believe this is a free-to-play game."
"No VR game looks this good," Vexxie agreed. "This feels… real."
Then they heard it.
A clang, distant but heavy. Like metal being dragged slowly across the floor.
Everyone stopped.
"What was that?" Luna asked.
"Could be part of the game's sound design," Brogan said, unsure. "Trying to scare us."
They kept moving. More scrap. A rusted monitor. A busted motor coil.
Then—
scrape… scrape… scrape…
Much closer now.
They turned down a hallway. That's when they saw it.
At the far end, standing motionless, was a tall figure. Human-shaped—but completely wrong. Its head looked like twisted copper coils, and its arms dangled loosely, like it was mid-step… but frozen.
"Is that—" Zane started.
"An NPC?" Vexxie guessed.
They aimed their lights. The thing didn't move.
"It's not doing anything," Brogan said. "Just standing there."
"Okay, kinda creepy," Luna whispered. "Let's go around it."
They took a side hallway, keeping their lights aimed behind them.
But when they turned back—
The figure was gone.
"Wait—where did it go?" Zane asked, voice rising.
"It was just there," Brogan said.
"Guys… is this an AI? Did the game say anything about enemies?"
"Nope," Vexxie said slowly. "Just said to bring back scrap and stay alive."
The sound of dragging metal started again.
Closer now.
Then—
Snap.
Zane screamed.
The figure had appeared behind him in an instant. Before anyone could react, it reached out and twisted his neck violently.
Zane's body hit the floor hard.
[ZaneZero has died.]
"WHAT—" Luna cried.
"RUN!" Brogan shouted.
They scattered, panicked, flashlights darting. Luna took a wrong turn and slammed into a wall.
She turned back—only to see the figure again. Still. Waiting.
She turned to flee.
Snap.
[LunaByte has died.]
Vexxie and Brogan sprinted blindly through the halls, heavy breathing filling the comms.
"This isn't just some ambient thing—these are real monsters!" Vexxie gasped.
Then came a new sound. Wet breathing. Slow, steady footsteps that weren't mechanical at all.
A different figure stepped from the dark. Pale. Thin. Twitching slightly. No wires—just long limbs and glowing eyes.
Brogan froze. "What the hell is that?"
"Not the coil thing," Vexxie whispered. "This is something else."
"Don't move," Brogan said. "Maybe it's scripted."
But it kept coming.
Fast.
It lunged at Brogan, tackling him with unnatural speed.
[Brogan has died.]
Vexxie screamed and bolted, running down a hallway lined with broken fans and flashing hazard signs. She didn't look back.
Then she saw it again—the coil-headed creature, standing perfectly still at the far end.
She stopped in her tracks. Flashlight aimed. Breathing hard.
"Okay," she whispered. "You don't move unless—"
Her eyes burned. She blinked.
Snap.
[Vexxie has died.]
All was quiet again.
Then their comms crackled to life.
"Guys?" Zane said. "I'm in some kind of floating view. I can see everything."
"Same," Luna said. "We're like… spectating?"
They all realized the same thing: there were no respawns. No retries. Just death—and observation.
"That wasn't just some indie horror," Brogan muttered. "That was designed. Every part of that felt real."
"Whatever this is," Vexxie said, "it's the scariest thing I've played. And we didn't even make it ten minutes."
Silence.
Then Zane said, "So… we doing another round?"
Everyone answered at once: "Yes."
Back in the ship, the game didn't load them directly into a new mission like they expected. Instead, the screen flashed:
[Night 1 Complete][Nights Remaining: 2]
"Wait…" Brogan said, frowning at the display on the wall. "Wait , We have three nights?"
"Yeah," Zane muttered, looking around. "And we didn't return any scrap."
A counter on the terminal confirmed it:
[Scrap Delivered: 0][Company Quota: 130][Deadline: Night 3]
Vexxie let out a low whistle. "So we actually have to bring the stuff back to the ship to keep it."
"I had like four pieces on me," Luna said, frustrated. "But I died before I could drop any of it."
"So if you die out there," Zane said, "you lose it all."
"And if everyone dies before anyone returns to the ship and drops it off… it's game over," Vexxie added.
They stood in silence for a second, the gravity of it settling in.
"Okay," Brogan said. "New plan: Next night, we don't split. We drop off scrap as soon as we find it. No more playing hero."
"And we survive," Luna added. "Because dying isn't just scary—it's expensive."
Zane looked at the glowing console. "Two nights left. One massive quota."
Vexxie stepped toward the launch terminal. "We better make the next one count."