Author: Unknown
Year: Unknown
My birthday was a few weeks ago and I have to say it was a great one. I got a ridiculous amount of presents from my family and my friends didn't skimp either. I wound up netting around $400 in cash and a good $150 in gift cards. I found this especially nice, as I'm not one to have a lot of excess money, but when I do have it I'm usually at a loss for how to spend it. After consulting with my friends, I decided to purchase a Nintendo Wii. I've never been terribly interested in video games, but after playing a few rounds of Wii Sports at my friend's house, I was hooked. I spent a good four hours scouring the internet for the best deal (not that I couldn't afford a new one at that point), and I eventually found a listing on eBay for a lightly used Wii for only $100. The seller didn't list too many details as to the condition of the console, but uploaded pictures that made it look well enough.
I was slightly hesitant to buy the Wii, as the seller was a new user and didn't have much feedback to go on as far as his reliability, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. When the Wii arrived, I noticed something peculiar about the box: it seemed to have mold growing from the corners of it, causing it to stink to no end. I disregarded this, though, as I was excited to play with my new console. I hurried opened the box and hooked it up. At first, I was unsure of what to do. When I turned on the Wii, there was a bunch of stuff left behind from the previous owner. But I was pretty lucky! It turns out he had purchased a ton of games from the Wii Shop. At my disposal were games like Yoshi's Story, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Legend of Zelda... I was in heaven. I played the games for a good six hours straight (I know, no life), until I got tired and went to bed.
When I awoke the next morning, I decided I would look through all the channels on the console to see what other kinds of fun I could have. Most of them were Virtual Console titles, up until the last page, where there was one channel. It looked like there might have been a problem with it, as the channel's image was a static-filled box. Not to miss out on a potentially fun experience, though, I decided to check it out and see what it was. When I clicked on it, I was brought to a grey screen with the phrase "Persevero" in red text. I later learned this was Latin for "Continue," but at the time I had no clue what it was and selected it anyway. I was taken to a menu with four symbols on it. Each symbol had a sort of menacing look to it. I don't really know why – they were simply unsettling to me. The first symbol I selected was a vertical line with a circle running through it, underneath an X. I was taken to a virtual world very similar to my own. It was as if the general layout of the city was a carbon copy of mine, but I digress. The game was unlike an I'd seen before, too. It was a first person game with no clear objective. You started in a house – one bearing a remarkable resemblance to my own – and were free to roam around. I spent a good three hours walking around when I decided I would see how closely this game paralleled mine. It was remarkable, though... Everything seemed exactly the same.
After another two hours of wandering, I was booted back to the menu with the symbols. This time there were only three. I checked my clock and saw it was getting late, so I decided to call it a night and head to bed. The next morning, I was eager to play through the next three symbols of the mysterious game I'd found, so I quickly turned on my Wii and launched the channel. I was once again brought to the menu with the three symbols. The second was an upside-down cross with a triangle going from the arms to the bottom of it, and I selected it. I was taken to essentially the exact same game as yesterday's, though now there were people around. They didn't have any discernable features, so they looked more like a bunch of mannequins walking around. I explored some more before being booted again to the symbol menu. There were now only two symbols. I continued and clicked the next symbol, a square inside a circle.
The game was off-putting this time. The world I was in seemed to be drearier and the characters moved more sluggishly. Upon further exploration, I noticed there were random objects that could be interacted with. Most of them were knives. I decided I would interact with one of the knives to see what I could do. Of course, one of the options was to kill a few of the mannequin citizens of what seemed to be my town. As sadistic as it sounds, it was pretty entertaining. When you killed a person, they would drop to the ground and writhe until they finally vanished. It was strangely...satisfying. After around 20 minutes of killing random civilians, I was booted back to the symbol menu. By this time, it was getting late again. I decided to get some sleep, and get around to the last symbol the next morning. The night went by relatively quickly, but I awoke to a strange odor in my house. I assume I had forgotten to take out the trash and continued with my morning.
I turned on my Wii and once again loaded the channel. The last remaining symbol was an X, and I clicked it. I was taken to the same game world as always, but everything was tinted dark red and I started with a knife in my hand. I assumed I knew what had to be done. I ran around stabbing countless citizens of the virtual town for a good five hours when it booted me back to the menu. It was blank. I was relatively disappointed in such a dull ending to what seemed to be such an interesting game. I decided I would head to bed for a nap, though. Five hours straight of gameplay was rather tiring, since I had to flail my arms for the motion-controlled stabbing for so long. While asleep, I had a strange dream. I was alone in a black room, holding nothing but a knife. Another man came in. I stood, staring back at him and not knowing what was happening. In a very distorted, almost demon-like voice, he said, "Congratulations. You are done now." Upon waking, I noticed the stench from earlier in the morning had gotten stronger. I sprayed some Febreeze and went to get lunch. While eating, I checked my email and noticed a message from the guy that had sold me the Wii.
Congratulations,
You are done now.Sincerely,
Arnold von Marshall
This creeped me out. Those were the exact words from my dream. I shook it off as a coincidence and continued with my day. The stench I smelled earlier was overbearing, so I decided I would look around to see what was causing it. I looked all over my house before I realized it was coming from my basement. I opened the door and walked down the stairs to find...a pile of dead bodies. I was horrified. I looked in absolute terror before running upstairs and trying to make sense of everything. After a good hour or two of staring, terrified, at the wall, I decided to go back down and investigate. I slowly opened the door and walked down toward the pile, when I noticed something pinned to the stairs. It was a printout of a shipping label for an address in Houston. The name on the return address was "Arnold von Marshall." I immediately ran upstairs to do a Google search. It turns out that Arnold von Marshall had killed 23 people in a small German town before killing himself. His obituary stated he died four months ago.
After reading this, I heard a bang at the door. It was the police.