There was light, too much light. Not the kind where you’re suddenly blared by a lamp a couple of inches away. No, it felt much further away.

“Hello……… Matthew,” a voice suddenly said, sounding eerily like his mother. He tried not to dwell on it.

“First time trying the game Beginning of the Beginning?”

“Um — yeah,” Matthew responded, creeped out the game could talk. “i just wanted to see what it was all about I guess,”

“Wonderful!” it said in a cheery voice

“Now—”

Just as it said that, a massive screen suddenly appeared, with millions of images flashing in and out before his eyes. It was then Matthew finally realized he was physically there, not just in his mind. He looked down and saw his feet hovering over a white, glossy surface. There was also a floating silver orb that had appeared right in front of him. He figured that the floating orb was the one that did all the talking. But behind the orb was something crazier. A massive screen, with thousands of different sections running through different images in record time. One image would appear and instantly be replaced with another.

“What you are looking at is called the Crater,” the voice said.

“The crater?” Matthew asked perplexed, sounded a little odd for something so…. insane, and impressive.

“Hashimoto has some oddities. One of those is the names he gives things,” the voice said. Matthew could feel the affection from its tone. That was probably also something Hashimoto had programmed as well. Matthew hadn’t been expecting to be talking to a sentient ai inside an already insane game.

“Enough of that,” the voice said, its tone shifting to a more serious one. “now tell me. Where do you want to begin your first game?”

All the images rotating on the screens suddenly stopped, turning completely black.

Matthew pondered. He hadn’t really thought about it. Who would he like to live as for a day?

Hitler had intrigued him, but if he picked him as his first request for the game, would that put him on some kind of list? He had no way of knowing, and it would be an even weirder thing to ask.

Matthew decided to be cautious about his first request.

‘So, who should he choose?’ Matthew thought to himself as he stared directly at the ‘Crater’.

Minutes passed, and he still hadn’t found an answer. Who the hell should he choose?

“Can we give a suggestion” the voice said, sensing his lack of preparation.

“I’m all ears,”

“Maybe this could help,” the voice said, and in an instance, the screen turned back on again. Now all it displayed were names and number listed next to them. And at the very top he saw the player coun——

4,503543982 people!!!!

Half of the human population was currently playing the game this very second. He knew the game had been big, but this. How hadn’t the world already collapsed?

It made Matthew smile a little, thinking that half the population could practically be in a coma, and the world would still turn semi-normally. Made him realize how small he was.

“Now, as you can see, we have all the options listed, from most popular to least popular,” the voice said, as he saw the numbers and names ascend up the screen at an incredible rate.

Who would be the most popular person?

The scrolling finally stopped when it reached the top 15 names. Matthew's eyes followed the number 1.

Micheal Jackson?

Well, it kind of made some sense. He had been a massive icon, but number 1? He looked toward the amount of people that had played him and saw the number. 20 billion plays!

‘Holy fucking Christ,’ Matthew thought, the game had been out for less than two weeks, and people had already played one person’s life 20 billion times. Matthew's eyes looked down the list, and most of the people he expected were there. Number two was Micheal Jordan, then some soccer player named Ronaldo. After that was….

Hitler.

Well, it seemed he hadn’t been the only one with the thought. After that, it was Genghis Khan. Figured. Probably a reason people were playing him, and he guessed it wasn’t for all the killing he did. Then it just went from historical figure, too famous person back and forth. The only other surprise was Jesus. At twelve, he would have thought he would have been much higher. Maybe Jesus was too sacred, and the only people that played him were non-Christians.

No matter how much Matthew looked up and down the list, he was stuck. Matthew started wondering why he even put the mask on. He just felt like it was wrong, and the one that had intrigued him, well billions, had already played as Hitler. He was also scared that their personalities would rub off on him. Matthew didn’t want that, he just wanted his cars.

“We can see you're conflicted in your choosing,” the voice said. “I think we would recommend this one for you.”

The list scrolled incredibly fast until it reached the number 532.

Karl Benz.

The person who had made his passion a possibility. He hadn’t even thought about that. This was maybe something.

Wait…..

“How did you know I would like this choice?” Matthew asked, still creeped out it knew his name earlier.

“Mister Hashimoto will one day explain. We can provide no further instructions. Sorry for the inconvenience,” a monotone robot voice had replaced the previous sweet voice this time. Matthew figured, why would the creator ever spill the beans? This was what was making him rich. Becoming the richest man alive after just two weeks. Matthew probably wouldn’t have told anyone either if he found something that made cars a million times better. He would have just racked in the cash.

A thought suddenly flew into Matthew’s brain.

“Can I see my name up their please” Matthew asked. He had been curious. Had anyone tried his name? The Names, and numbers descended until it reached the billions where it eventually stopped.

Matthew Blake — Zero plays.

He figured. It made sense why would anyone try to play his “Game”.

Well, other than himself, of course. The thought of his mother trying to play a game as him sent shivers down his spine. He was happy it was at zero plays.

“I choose number 532 Karl Benz,”

“Excellent, now how long would you like to play the game?”

Matthew looked up at the screen as it shifted once more. It entered Karl Benz's profile. Matthew could see all the memories of his life speeding through one image into the next. 23.407 people were playing him right now. The thought made Matthew's head spin.

Matthew looked below, all the images rotating through each other.

Options:

1day.

1week.

1month.

1year.

Lifetime.

Matthew stared at that last option, a whole lifetime. That wasn’t something he would ever do, but to think it was even a possibility.

Had his father spent an entire lifetime in here? And if he had, who had he chosen?

Matthew forcibly stopped his thought process their. It was better if he didn’t know, nor did he need to. For his own wellbeing. He was just here to try it out, so….

“One day,”

“Perfect,” the floating orb responded, and yet again, the screen shifted.

“Now usually people choose a day where the person does something noteworthy. Where they accomplish a big goal, or picked from our rankings on which day they should try,” the voice explained.

Ranking? They were ranking days? So the players could pick the most interesting ones? ‘Everything had been constructed to the extreme,’ Matthew thought. But how was the ranking determined?

How it made the person feel?

How it made others feel?

It made no sense at all, but here it was in front of his eyes.

“Some also just choose an entirely random day to play in.” The voice continued. “Now, which will you choose, Matthew?”

Matthew didn’t know, but it wasn’t like it was gonna make a massive difference. Matthew knew now this would be the last time trying this game.

“I would like the most popular option, please,” Matthew said.

“It shall be,” the voice said, and the ‘Crater’ disappeared.

“Remember to stay calm and know. It’s just a game,” the voice said finally. Matthew began feeling himself being pulled from the white room with the orb and the ‘Crater’. “Remember to have fun,” Matthew heard, before darkness enveloped him. Matthew couldn’t feel his fingers, toes, or his face. Nothingness. He was just floating now, aimlessly. He was slightly beginning to regret his decision to try the machine on.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Until it all came flooding back. He could feel his hand, his feet, his brown hair on his face. Had someone pulled the device off his head?

Matthew slowly felt his eyes open, but instead of staring at the tv across his father's chair. He was staring directly up at a ceiling. He felt his body, which had sunken into something soft, and as his eyes traveled down, he saw an old muddy colored blanket covering his body. It took two seconds for his mind to catch up. He was not at home.

His body quickly sat up, and he bolted from the bed. Scanning the room as fast as possible, looking for a mirror. There was nothing to be found. Other than broken-down walls and a creaking floor. Matthew rushed out the wooden door, hoping to find a mirror.

Matthew found himself in the bathroom, which had luckily been right outside the room, which he assumed was Karl Benz's. Here he was staring at himself in the mirror, not Karl Benz's faced stared back. His own did. His bright blue eyes, his dark brown hair, and his almost uni-brow eyebrows.

Matthew could feel himself hyperventilation. This was real. He didn’t know what he should do.

Wait… this was supposed to be the most popular day, right? But how the hell was he supposed to know what to do? He had never been here before. He had never lived Karl Benz's life. How was he supposed to navigate this man’s life?

“Karl?” Matthew heard a female voice outside his door, sounding a little concerned.

He didn’t know what to do, nor what to say

“Umm yeah…. Bertha” It just came out, like it was the most natural thing in the world. What the hell was happening?

“You ok in there?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ll be down in a second,” he said, hoping she would take the bait.

“Alright, but don’t take too long. We don’t have all day today. We got stuff to do,” she said warmly and began walking away from the door.

Matthew let out a sigh of relief. He couldn’t believe it. How the hell had he known her name? He didn’t know what he had expected, but it certainly hadn’t been this. He took a deep breath and realigned himself.

It was only a day, and it wasn’t like it was going to affect anything, regardless of what happened. He would just go with the flow and never try this game again.

The stairs creaked as he slowly descended the stairs. And as he finally came to the bottom of what had seemed like endless stairs, there she stood. In clothes that were both far too old and formal for Matthew to recognize.

“You are so slow today. Get a move on,” Bertha said, her tone still light. “We got stuff to do,”

Matthew didn’t know how to react. He had the shirt he had slept with on, some socks he found on the floor of his living room, and the pair of pants he had when he woken up.

The woman squinted her eyes at him, and he felt himself under intense scrutiny. Would she figure it out? What would even happen, and why didn’t she notice he had a different face than her husband? But just as he had thought that, his body sent the woman a warm smile, and she blushed in return. ‘That had not been him,’ Matthew thought to himself.

“Well…. what are you waiting for? Get some clothes on dummy,”

Matthew suddenly knew where the clothes were, and without thinking about it, went down the corridor, turned left. Just like he knew remembered, a large closet.

‘this feels so bizarre,’ Matthew thought to himself. How did he know this was here?

Matthew shook his head and opened the closet. There were shirts, pants, ties, and hats. He truly had become Karl Benz for a day. He picked out the clothes he somehow knew he would need and took them on. There was nothing matthew could do but live the day out.

And that he did.

As Matthew strode out of the house with his ‘wife’, and they began walking away from their house. The beautiful woman took his hand and began pulling it. “What is with you today? Come on, we gotta hurry,” the woman said with a playful smile.

Matthew almost found himself smiling back at her again.

Dangerous.

As he was dragged through town, it became very apparent he was in a different time period. ‘The buildings weren’t too different, ok maybe a lot,’ he thought. But he guessed that had to do with he was now in Germany and not rural Colorado. But no, the thing that stood out the most was one thing. The clothes. Every person who walked by all looked so…. Elegant. Every person he saw had some sort of coat, if it was a man or a beautiful dress, if it was a woman. The other thing that was weird was…. Everyone was nodding at him. It felt so odd to walk through the streets and be given so much respect. Even the small children that were walking around nodded. His ‘wife’ was none the wiser, or she thought it was normal as she pulled him along….

Matthew felt the warmth of her hand and looked down at it. He was holding another mans wife's hand. He looked back up at his ‘wife’ face and slightly nudged it free. His ‘wife’ looked at him.

“Sorry dear, my hands are just a little sweaty today,” he said.

The woman didn’t comment and just lead him along, just as before. He hoped Karl Benz had taken no disrespect to what he had done, probably not because he was dead. But it still felt wrong.

“Finally,” the woman said, as they came into view of a large warehouse. Massive in fact. “Wouldn’t have taken so damn long if you had hurried up”

“Sorry dear…. I’m a little out of it today,” Matthew said, not entirely lying. He didn’t like how the ‘dear’ had just came out of his mouth without a second thought. This game was getting weirder and weirder by the second. This day had happened before…. Just not entirely like this. Matthew wondered what would happen if he had just killed himself right here. The day would probably just end and he would wake up. But would it affect anything? What would happen if he just ran in the other direction and didn’t stop? He didn’t know. So many questions, but without even trying, his body marched up in front of his wife and fixed his clothes. Karl Benz was getting ready, and in extension, so was Matthew.

They both walked through the main door, the noise of the factory loud enough to be heard without it being opened. But with the hinges of the factory opening, the blaring noise hit both of them right in the face. It felt just like home. This, Matthew knew, was his feeling. What he was looking at was probably the largest car manufacturing building in the world.

Who the hell was he kidding? He was looking at the largest manufacturer in the world at the time. “Welcome back, Matthew,” a voice said, barely being picked up by his ears from all the noise. Matthew tilted his head to the left and saw a man in clothes much nicer than his walking toward him with the biggest smile on in the world.

“Are you ready for today?” the man asked with the biggest split eating grin he had ever seen. Before Matthew could even ascend a hand to say hey, the man pulled him into an enormous hug. Matthew's body responded instantly by doing the same. The man slowly pulled back from his hug and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You finally did it,” the man said, a single tear leaving his otherwise very handsome face.

Matthew body took the man’s hand off his shoulder and placed both of his hands on the man’s shoulders. Looking him straight in the eyes.

“No Heinz, we did it my friend” Matthew released his hands from the man’s shoulder, his body working on its own. ‘I’ll just go with the flow,’ Matthew thought. If he spent too much time trying to find out how he knew these things, he would go crazy.

Matthew raised his hands towards the factory. “All of us did,” He said, overlooking the entire factory.

Heinz silently smiled at him and then gestured for him and his ‘wife’ to follow. There were two floors to the factory, the ground layer where all the cars were being manufactured. Where everything was being built by hand. If Matthew had to guess, there had to be over two hundred employees working right now.

As Heinz led them onto the upper floor, he could see the production from above.

This was heaven.

Different parts, for difference uses. Old material that would be useless by today’s standards being used to meticulously to make the best cars of the time. This factory was truly something special.

It was Karl Benz's factory.

It was Matthew Blake’s factory,.

Matthew shook his head, the beauty of the factory losing a little of its glimmer. Suddenly, it didn’t feel like a beautiful piece of art he was looking at, but something he felt had built through decades of labor. He hadn’t.

He was taken out of his thought as his ‘wife’ squeezed his hand with a smile. She pointed toward the other side of the upper floor as they turned the corner of the factory. Over thirty people were standing over there. A visible smile was present on all of their faces, even at this further distance.

Heinz looked back at him.

“Sorry boss, but this news has to be spread to the entire family,” He said.

Matthew smiled back. “You fool, it’s not set in stone yet,”

Yet again, Matthew's body moved and spoke on its own.

“Come on, they're not gonna pull out now, you know it,” His wife said, now at his side.

Matthew sighed. He had no way of guessing which day would be the most popular in this mans life, but it made sense. The deal where they finally secured another manufacturer, and the day they began making the big bucks. ‘The good days were of course the most popular,’ Matthew thought.

As they finally reached the other side of the factory, all of his employees’ smiles got even brighter.

“We finally did it, boss,” One of the cheerful employees said.

“Were going to be rich,” another said heart fully, and all the others laughed. Matthew couldn’t help the smile forming on his lips. Their happiness was contagious.

His body moved on its own, giving each of the men in their fine suits a handshake one after the other. As he finally shook the hand of the last employee. Heinz came up to him and said.

“We would love it if you would give a speech,”

All the others shouted out a ‘yeah’ that tore through the noise of the factory. His body instinctively looked towards the back of the group. His ‘wife’, with a warm smile on her face, nodding at him.

Matthew released a sigh.

He didn’t like how he could feel the excitement run through his veins, and even less when Heinz suddenly shouted.

“STOOOOOPP,”

“THE BOSS HAS A MESSAGE,”

The loud noise of the man’s voice found the ear of every single employee. All their hard work stopped and began looking straight up at them.

Up at him.

Matthew really didn’t like it now, the rush he was feeling looking down at all these people. For something Karl Benz had done…….

What the hell was he thinking?

He couldn’t do this.

He tried to look back at his wife and his employees, and say he couldn’t do the speech. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t him.

His body didn’t allow itself to be turned. Instead, it slowly walked toward the railing. He raised both of his hands and slowly brought them down in-front of all his employees. Silencing the small conversations that had been going on below.

Matthew tried to make his body move one way or the other, but it didn’t budge.

Nothing worked.

Just as he was about to open his mouth against his will, his mother flashed through his skull.

A woman he had not seen since he was 9 years old. There she was cooking in the kitchen, her black long hair that flowed to her hips. He could hear sounds from her, but he couldn’t make it out. He tried looking around, but Matthew saw nothing but darkness. The only thing that was illuminated was the kitchen and his mom. He remembered the way she cut and prepared the food; It was so gentle. Slowly moving back and forth, always lolling him into a false sense of security. Until she suddenly stop, the noise she had been making stopped to.

She began turning her head toward him. Matthew’s breath caught in his throat. He didn’t know what to do. He had seen his mother in over ten years, but here she was. Matthew fell to his knees in terror. Their his mom was. All of her, except her face, which was completely blank, smooth, a void.

“Its all your fault,” His mother said as she slowly enclosed on him. He was too terrified to move. “All of this is your fault. I tolerated your father for you!!!!,” she said, her tone getting much angrier.

“I sacrificed everything for you,” his mother said, “And still you didn’t do what I wanted!!!!.”

Matthew couldn’t breathe. His mother now bent down inches from his face. Nothing but void staring back at him, with her black hair falling over where her face should be.

His mother exclaimed, "You were not what I was promised!!!!!!" as she raised her hand as high as she could, bringing it down with all her might.

CRUNZZZ!!!

Matthew felt his head whip back, falling backwards on his ass. Just as he was about to raise his hand to block another punch from his mother, he opened his eyes and saw every single employee looking at him like they had seen a ghost. He stared from one face to another and all of them looked like they had just seen the world end. His eyes searched for his ‘wife’. When they found her, tears were streaming down her face.

“APORT!!!!!!!” a robotic voice shouted.

Matthew's head suddenly started ringing, and saw a hole suddenly begin opening in the factory's celling, and he wasn’t the only one that noticed. Everyone started screaming and running for their lives.

“MALFUNCTION DETECTED!!!!!”

The voice ran in his head again. This time, Matthew was a little more clearheaded. Something had gone very wrong.

IMMEDIATE ELIMINATION!!!!

Matthew felt his heart sink into his chest, his entire body suddenly going into fight-or-flight mode. He knew which person they meant by elimination. Matthew tried to shuffle his way to his feet, but his body simply didn’t respond. He knew this time it was just himself that couldn’t get his legs to move. As he stared upward toward the black rift that had been growing larger and larger in the factory's ceiling, it suddenly started emitting a pinkish light that grew larger and larger.

Until instantly, it had turned into a glimmer. The last thing Matthew would remember was the pink glimmer before……..

Darkness.

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Hope you guys like the story thus far. It’s going in a fun direction which I’m excited about. If there is anything I can improve, please write it. Next chapter will be out by Friday. Leave a review and some feedback. Just wanna say as well if you're going through some stuff, you got this. My girlfriend cheated on me recently, and we broke things off. But I’m still trying to get better at what I wanna do. I believe you can, too. That was maybe too cringy, but you get the gist. Get after it.

Sirrom signing out.