Town of Blank

Just a few weeks ago, I came across something on the popular page of Roblox that shouldn’t have been there. It was a game, to say the least. Not one of those bot-infested free robux bandwagons. The game has since been taken down, but I will still try to write down everything I can remember happening on there before its removal.

I was on the edge of the school year, ready to accomplish all the fun things Summer break had in store for me. One of those many things, was video games. I know, just another stereotypical teenager. My mother of course, didn’t want me associating with any electronics, so she planned on taking my Xbox 360, and other fun filled devices for the time being.

She left my phone however, as I had friends I would go out with a lot, and she would call me every once in a while, make sure things were okay. Not that there was anything truly magnificent on there, anyways. Aside from all the useful apps I didn’t plan making use of, there was one I never considered purchasing in place of my console games, until the start of Summer break.

That game was Roblox. My friends laughed at the idea, but upon looking at it, it seemed to offer a lot for being free to play. Plus, I didn’t have any money, so Minecraft and GTA San Andreas were out of the question. And those were my favorites.

So, as I was seeking refuge under the roof from a blazing hot Saturday, I installed it. I was actually thrilled, to be honest. Unlike my friends who always thought games under the rating teen adolescent were babyish, I really liked the idea of an online game that allowed users from around the world to create practically anything they could imagine. Though it did require some skill. But I wasn’t there to develop anything, I was there to have a great time. And before long, I made an account.

At the time I had a guest account, which means I couldn’t conserve with any players or try on cool accessories. I didn’t mind, I could always make an account if I wanted to. But I was just trying out the game and thought about deleting it later on. But I didn’t. As Summer break traveled along, I found myself playing it more and more. I made a large amount of progress on games like Jail Break and Bee Swarm Simulator, which I was fairly good at, if I do say so myself. I even convinced a few of my friends to hop on, and we had a great time.

But all that fun didn’t last long. As the first week of Summer break came to a close, I was scrolling through the Roblox website, looking for new games to play. I should have been in bed. It was 9:52 PM when I noticed a new game had appeared on the popular page. There was no picture and the title simply read: Town of. Surely, the title must have been to long to fit in such a small space, so I tapped on it out of curiosity. The game was created by a user called: Bee_B727. Oddly enough, the title was no more than: Town of.

“Town of. . .what?” I quickly clamped my hands over my mouth, coming to the realization that my parents could still be asleep. I paused a moment to make sure there was no response to the noise I just made, and quickly went back to studying the screen. I scrolled down to see the description, and it simply read: Population:. Nothing, there were no numbers indicating how many people lived in this strange town. Weird, I thought ''and at least 3,070 people are playing it. . .or maybe they are just bots.'' I shrugged absentmindedly and tapped the play button. It was probably one of the greatest mistakes I made now that I think about it.

Upon joining, I was met with distorted music, almost like some weathered radio signal. I immediately shut off the volume to avoid waking anybody up. That’s when I really wished I had earphones, but my mother also confiscated those for some weird reason. I skimmed around the perimeter using third person view. The skybox was cloudy and red, resembling magma almost. Random blocks and other bits were scattered around the area, but there were no buildings to be seen in the practically desolate, green landscape. Where was the town?

As I continued to explore my surroundings, I began to feel even more unsettled. The fact that bots would be on here, was a mystery to me. Usually the creators of games like these had something for sale, maybe admin commands, or a sweet item of some sort. This game had nothing like that. No signs of anything special advertising a cool trinket at the cost of some robux. Maybe this was just some sort of publicity stunt, the creator of the game probably just wants people to check out his creation. Though it seemed like a lame idea, seen as you could literally do nothing but walk around until your ears bled from the horrific sounds that played nonstop.

Did you know, that if you stay in a place out of your comfort for way too long, you start hearing and seeing things that aren’t really there? That’s what I’m told at least, and I almost believe it after what transpired during my time on the game. I began hearing hysterical crying embedded within the white noise. It sounded like a full-grown man, much to my freaky realization. That wasn’t the only thing I heard, however. Incoherent whispers filled the air, and I absolutely swear I could hear my username being spoken every few seconds. I honestly don’t know why I refused to leave the game right then and there. By then it was 10:30, and I felt like I was going to wet myself.

Nevertheless, I persisted in my exploration. And before long, a few other players joined. I guess I wasn’t the only one curious as to why the game existed. I tried communicating with them, but they simply ignored me. Usernames were disabled, so I wasn’t able to tell who they were by looking at them. But I was relived. The last thing I wanted to do was play alone. The feeling of relief didn’t last long however, as they left shortly after. I was done with this game. I couldn’t believe that I had wasted my time. I exited the game and went on to find something else to do.

Somewhere around 10:50, I received a friend request. Like many friend requests, I would decline them. But this one was different. The second I saw who it was from, a chill whizzed down my spine. The friend request was sent by Bee_B727. His avatar was of a classic pal-hair character, accept with green skin. The creator of that godforsaken game. Despite my sudden fear, I was in no mood to miss such a case-closing experience. And so, I clicked accept.

I immediately received a message upon befriending the mysterious user. The message contained two words: Come back.

A sense of paranoia welled in my stomach. I mustard up the courage to respond, despite not knowing how to do so.

''Uh. . .hello?'' I typed reluctantly.

Why did you leave? Bee_B727 responded.

Nothing was happening, I admitted, I got bored.

That’s a shame, Bee_B727 replied. Though his voice was a complete mystery, I could almost sense the eerie monotone voice he spoke with through every word he typed.

You know, you could get banned for that, I said, reminiscing on the fact that shoving your own game into the populer section of the sight through a hoard of bots was against the rules.

You know, you could get banned for that, I said, reminiscing on the fact that shoving your own game into the populer section of the sight through a hoard of bots was against the rules.

What do you mean? Bee_B727 asked.

''Oh, you know, making your game end up on the populer page by getting bots to join. Its not really fair to aspiring creators that actually take the time to make a qaulity game. You know what I’m saying?''

The townspeople aren’t bots, Bee_B727 exclaimed, ''they’re real people, like you and me! I’ve never been so offended in my entire career! ''

What the hell are you talking about? I inquired, deeply annoyed.

''Don’t you know how lucky you are? For every user who plays on this dammed website, my game only appears for them once! ONCE, I tell you! And they either ignore it, or they take the time to join!''

I pause for a moment, considering what the mysterious user just said. I went back to the game’s page and scrolled down to see it was created in 2010, and already had over 10,000 visits. I clicked on the server lists and to my horror I saw a variety of different players. All of different shapes and sizes, colors and personalities. There was no way these could be bots! I went back to the chat and confronted Bee_B727 once again.

''How did you get all these people to join your game? Did you send bots to hack these accounts? How. . .how did you do all this?'' I was honestly afraid. When I really thought about it, the game resembled a free robux obby. When you get to the end, they ask you for your username and password. If you were dumb enough to give the game this information, a bot would sign into your account and began spamming links to the same game. Only, in the case of this creepy game, it already knows your password, and you just have to be dumb enough to click on it. Who knew how many adds and links were being broadcasted now? This was probably the biggest raid ever on the history of Roblox, and I was speaking to the seed who planted it all. Only, this wasn’t what I thought it was. The truth was much, much worse.

''The question you should be asking isn’t how. . .its why.''

A lump formed in my throat. I couldn’t take any more of this. I left the chat, deleted the mysterious user from my friend list, and finally shut off my phone, shoving it between two pillows, followed by slipping into my bedsheets. Despite all that happened, I got to sleep easily. It was no beauty rest, however. I was confronted by nightmares of all sorts, hellish glimpses of the game I planned on never returning to, dismembered and mutilated corpses of my friend’s roblox avatars, and worst of all, the face of Bee_B727, only more horrific. A gelatinous, black liquid oozed from his unnaturally large eye ducts and his gaping mouth bared jagged teeth with bits of rotting flesh. Its amazing how the mind can enhance your greatest fears; they can turn spiders into giant arachnids. They can turn clowns into malicious serial killers. They can turn a simple roblox avatar into a nightmarish entity.

I couldn’t help but wonder if I should have done anything. If this was some widespread attack on one of the biggest online games, couldn’t there have been a way to warn the ever-growing community about it? What I was most confused about, was about the many individuals whose accounts supposedly got hacked. Why hadn’t they said anything? There were thousands of them playing at the time, surely most of them found out about what was going on. All these thoughts manifested themselves into one massive headache, which soon sent me into a deep sleep.

(W.I.P)