“What the…?”
Ella leaned closer to her laptop, squinting at the screen.
At first, she thought it was just another glitch. Her laptop had been acting up all week, freezing mid-game, lagging at the worst times. All she did was reinstall Stardew Valley again… Well, with a few mods that looked interesting.
“I knew I shouldn’t have downloaded random mods,” she muttered.
The yellow text sat there, weird and unreadable.
[ Collp acoxo. Ua's ybfwk ap soo b fod yusc uf aco npfi. Cpd iui kpt voa coxo luaalo axpta. Doll... Sufwo kpt'xo coxo do zuvca bs doll nlbk b luaalo vbzo. Gta go dbxfoi acus vbzo cbs aoxxuglo wpfsohtofwos. ]
“Yeah, okay, definitely not a mod.”
Before she could grab her phone to look it up, the text started moving. It was rearranging itself. Letters rushed past each other, top to bottom and back again, blurring into a mess of motion she couldn’t track. It lasted barely a second. Then it stopped with a black screen, like it completed an installation.
A new message popped up.
[ Welcome to Cipher Quest, contestant. We’re so happy you’re here. ]
Ella leaned back. “Contestant? I didn’t sign up for anything.”
She tapped a few keys. Nothing. The mouse didn’t move either.
“Great. So it is a virus.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Then a new line appeared underneath.
[ Level 1: Decode the message you just saw. ]
“What? How? I don’t even remember it properly,” she muttered. “It was just random gibberish.”
[ Incorrect. Try again. ]
Her stomach dropped. “I didn’t even type anything yet.”
[ You already did. ]
Ella blinked and quickly grabbed her phone, opening her notes app. She tried to rewrite what she remembered:
(Collp acoxo… Ua’s ybfwk…)
Her fingers hesitated.
“…Why do I remember this so clearly?”
This whole experience was creeping her out. Why was she even getting along with it? What will happen if she didn't do what it wanted? Will she die?
[ Time limit: 60 seconds. ]
“What?!”
Her heart started racing. “Okay okay, geez! Let me think! Cipher, cipher… Caesar shift? Rot13? Substitution?”
She tried Rot13 first. It looked wrong. Tried shifting letters manually. Still nonsense.
“Ugh, think, Ella!”
[ 30 seconds remaining. ]
Her breathing quickened.
“Okay… ‘Collp acoxo’… Repeated letters… Maybe it’s not random… I see a pattern. A pattern where the vowels and consonants are swapped around!”
She felt the eureka moment hitting her, and start typing it out.
"A is H, C is T, O is E. I'm starting to get it." She muttered as she rewrote the whole code letter by letter.
[ 10 seconds remaining. ]
"Okay, okay! I'm typing!"
Her hands moved. She typed:
Hello there. It's great to see a new face in the park. How did you get here little sprout. Well... Since you're here we might as well play a little game. But be warned this game has terrible consequences.
As she hit enter, she sort of felt a déjà vu moment. As if she experienced this moment before.
There was silence for a long moment. How long? Maybe few seconds, but it felt like forever.
[ Correct. ]
Ella exhaled sharply. “Nice, okay. Am I free now? Can you stop taking my laptop as hostage?”
[ Level 2 skipped. Level 3 skipped. Level 7 skipped. ]
“…Skipped?”
[ Welcome back, Ella. ]
Her blood ran cold.
“I... What? This is my first time.”
The screen flickered.
For a split second, the blue background returned. But this time, the yellow text didn’t disappear fast enough.
She saw more of it. Different lines of letters, all looked like ciphers she had to decode. All slightly different, hundreds of them. Somehow it looked like different attempts were made. Even the failed ones. And somehow she felt like they were... her answers.
[ You’ve said that before. ]
Her hands started trembling. “No. No, I didn’t.”
[ You always forget after Level 10. That’s part of the reward. ]
“Reward? What reward?”
The screen pulsed.
[ Freedom. ]
Something thudded softly behind her.
Ella turned.
Her bedroom door was open. She was sure she’d closed it. Darkness stretched beyond it, thick and unmoving. As if stepping through it was like stepping to some empty void.
[ You didn’t make it last time. ]
Her breath hitched. “Last time...?”
[ You almost reached the end. But you chose to quit. ]
“Of course I would, if I can leave–”
[ You always say that too. ]
The cursor blinked again.
[ Level 10: Exit the game. ]
Ella stared at the words.
“…That’s it? Am I dreaming?”
[ Just leave. ]
Relief flooded her chest. “Okay. Okay, that’s easy. This must be a dream, that's why my laptop is weird and I'm being weirder for doing all this.”
She stood up, legs shaky, and stepped toward the door.
The darkness seemed very scary. It was as if a monster was awaiting her there, or worse, she would get lost in the darkness forever. Alone.
“…This feels like a trick.”
[ It is. ]
She froze.
“…What?”
The screen glitched. For the first time, the way the words were written was pretty straight forward. She could assume that the one typing these out got tired or impatient, and wanted her to make her final decision already.
[ If you leave, you win. If you stay, you play again. ]
Ella looked between the screen and the doorway. Her chest tightened.
“…And if I lose?”
A pause.
Longer than before.
[ You already did. ]
The room flickered. Just for a second. Ella saw the blue screen again with the yellow text.
Ella didn’t remember sitting back down. But her hands were already on the keyboard.
"What the...?"
The screen blinked to black. The blue background replaced with a new text.
[ Welcome to Cipher Quest, contestant. We’re so happy you’re here. ]