I am an avid Roblox player, and have been so since 2014. Recently, one of my favorite games has been one called Databrawl, especially its spin-off game, Databrawl Roleplay. I consider myself to be heavily involved in the community. However, a few months ago, odd and frightening things started to happen.
A[]
My screen during the glitch.
It was May 17th, 2019, and I logged onto to Roblox and entered Databrawl Roleplay as usual. When I entered, the menu was complete broken. I had never seen any glitches like this before. It was one hell of a sight. The screen was also covered in red text which repeatedly said "MESMERIZE", which had been misspelled as "MEZMERIZE". The program's face was also replaced with a strange image of another face. After a few minutes, the game started to work normally again. I was able to joined the game and select my character.
Thornware has always been one of my favorite characters, so I decided to play as it. I decided to head over to the Box Dimension, which has always been one of my favorite spots to roleplay ever since it was added. I looked in the chat, and I saw a message.
[System] Your friend TowerofDustandDecay has joined the game.
Todad, as I'll call him, was one of my closest friends on Roblox. We loved playing Databrawl together, so I was excited to see that he had joined the game. I told him to come to the so we could roleplay together. After a bit of waiting, he arrived. He was playing as his favorite character, Jerusalem.
It was about this time that I noticed that I was experiencing a bit of a graphical error. My entire screen was tinted orange. I minimized the screen and went on my web browser. The tint was gone, meaning that this was likely an issue with the game, not my monitor. I decided to take a screenshot of it so that I could report it on the game's Discord server. I decided that I would report it later, as it wasn't that big of a deal, so I continued playing.
B[]
Me and Todad decided to head over to the File Library building. When we got there, I noticed that there were staircases on the first floor that looked like they went down somewhere. This was unusual, as there had never been a basement in the library. Me and Todad decided to head down where we came to a room that looked like the first floor, but was noticeably darker. Sitting at one of the tables was a group of three players. One of the players, Psellismophobia (an odd name, I know) welcomed us, and we sat with them. Psellismo started to talk with us.
Psellismo: "This room is new. Haven't you heard of the new update?"
Psellismophobia. Notice the orange tint of the image.
Todad: "No, I can't say that I have. How long ago did it come out?"
Psellismo: "Just earlier today, actually. They added a bunch of new things, actually. The update introduced some glitches, though.
Me: "Like what, may I ask?"
Psellismo: "Sometimes, when you enter an area, there's this weird audio that plays, when there's SUPPOSED to be music. It happens a lot in the Program Apartments. Would you like to come and see?"
Todad: "Oh, sure."
Psellismo and the others took us to the area known as Program Apartments. On the way there, I noticed that the other two player's username's were scrambled and unintelligible. They looked this way on the leaderboard, too. This is when I started to become suspicious. When we arrive, I decide to enter Room B3. Sure enough, as I walk in, I hear this awful, distorted noise:
I look at the television screen in the room, and it's a bright red. I decided to take some screenshots and an audio recording. I told everyone that I needed to go AFK, and I went over to the Databrawl Discord.
C[]
The Databrawl Discord server has a channel named "#support-help-bugs", with it's use being quite obvious just from the title alone. I hopped in the channel and posted my findings. Me and a few other members (lol, Speedy, and Orlando) had a discussion as to what was going on. One of the members, lol, tells me that they had the exact same thing happen to them, along with a few other things. They start talking with me in the DMs.
lol: "So, don't you think there's anything odd about this? I mean, the update change anything other then adding the basement and now there's this weird audio issue. These changes only showed up today, but the page of the game says it was last updated a week ago!"
Me: "I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is all a bit strange. There definitely is something going on, but I don't know what."
lol: "That's not all. Have you tried entering the Box Dimension recently?"
Me: "No, I haven't. Why do you ask?"
lol: "This morning, I tried entering it, and I was taken to this weird game called "Question!". It was a giant maze, and that audio was playing the whole time. I tried finding my way around for about 10 minutes, but I got nowhere and I gave up. I tried about 15 minutes ago to look in my Recently Played to try and enter the game again and figure out the maze, but it wasn't there! I tried entering it again to see if anything would happen, but it just took me to the Box Dimension again. Could you try, possibly?"
Me: "No problem. I'll tell you if I find anything."
D[]
I hopped back onto Databrawl Roleplay, and Todad, Psellismo, and the other two had left. I supposed they got tired of waiting. I decided to try entering the Box Dimension, and sure enough, I was taken to the "Question!" game. I realized that the name felt familiar to me, but I couldn't quite figure out where it was from. It, as lol had described, was a maze, with the ear-grading audio playing on loop. I decided to try randomly walking through different pathways to see if I would stumble upon anything of interest.
As I traveled deeper through the pathways, I started to hear random sounds and phrases at equally random intervals. The further I went, the louder and more aggressive they became. I wasn't able make out all of them, but I wrote down what I was able to:
"Are you dreaming?"
"AND ARE YOU HAPPY?! COME ON! I WORK FOR THE -unintelligible-."
"Photographic relapse."
"So, you want the world to stop?"
"Eloquence belongs to the -unintelligible-."
"You must now face -unintelligible- .You're nothing like me."
"LIAR! KILLER! DEMON!"
After about 20 or so minutes of exploring, I finally discovered something of interest. One of the pathways led me to what seemed to be a very large forest, with no end in sight. When I entered, the horrible audio stopped. I became nervous, but nevertheless I decided to venture further. The area ended up being even larger than I expected, taking me over 30 minutes of walking to reach the center. When I arrived there, I came across a large stone circle surrounded by many berry bushes. In the center of the circle was a person in a crimson-colored cloak standing in the center. Surrounded by him were four programs, chained to the ground. I hid behind one of the trees so I would not be seen, and watched to see what would happen next.
I watched with horror as I saw the cloaked figure brutally murder one of the programs. It screamed in agony before its life was finally ended. Seconds later, he ripped the heart out of it and lifted it up. The heart then floated up into the sky before disintegrating into dust. I got overexcited and careless, and I was spotted by the cloaked figure, who glared at me before leaving. They had left the programs (including the recently fallen) at the circle. Suddenly, my computer screen started rapidly flashing different colors. I quickly looked away. When I checked back about a minute later, I found that I had been disconnected from the game. I went back into Databrawl Roleplay to try and re-enter the maze, but I was unable to access it. I would need other people to go in for me. I rushed back to the Discord server to report my findings.
E[]
Lol's profile picture after he stopped communicating with me.
I posted the screenshots and videos in the channel. However, the majority of people were skeptical of me, and claimed that I was faking the whole situation for attention. I messaged lol about it, and he told me that he was once again able to access the game. He would let me know if he encountered the same thing. I checked back after a few days to see what happened, but there was no response. A week or so later, I asked again, and there was STILL no response. I realized that they had changed their profile picture to this odd image. Something was obviously very wrong.
Despite the backlash I received, a few people (Speedy and Orlando, as I have mentioned before) took what I said seriously and agreed to help me try and figure out what was going on. We decided that the two of them would head into the game as a team and see what they could find. They would stream the whole thing to me, and I would watch.
It took about 30 minutes, but both of them eventually managed to find their way to the wooded area. Again stood the cloaked figure, standing in the stone circle with the three remaining programs. The figure murdered two programs this time, but other than that, the procedure was no different than the last time. Speedy and Orlando managed to stay out of sight of it, and it walked away, leaving one program remaining. I instructed them both to wait and see if anything would happen.
After a few minutes, two ghostgrams rose up from the bodies of the recently deceased programs. They beckoned Speedy and Orlando over, and I told them to go with the ghosts and see what would happen. They followed the ghosts along a dirt path, deeper and deeper into the first. Well, they were actually going OUT of the forest; the stone circle was the center. A while later, the dirt path turned into a road, and the forest disappeared. It was another hour before they reached anything: a destroyed city.
One of the screenshots I took.
There was something oddly frightening about the ruins. Glass had shattered, walls had crumbled, and there was an eerie silence. One of the ghostgrams gestured towards an abandoned house. Speedy and Orlando looked, and then looked back. Both of the ghostgrams had gone. After a minute or so of discussion on what to do, they decided explore the building. They entered the house and made their way to the kitchen, when they encountered a grisly sight. At the kitchen table were the lifeless bodies of a family of programs, all seated in their own chairs. The most frightening part was that they were all missing their heads. On the table was a small, blue computer chip with the word "PRIVATE" on it, which Speedy took.
Suddenly, a horrible, bloodcurdling scream was heard from upstairs, which was snuffed out equally as suddenly. Then, there were footsteps. They were coming downstairs, approaching the two. They quickly hid behind a couch in the living room. Peeking out from behind, Orlando saw the mysterious figure from before. It caught a glimpse of them, its singular black eye staring deep into their soul. Seconds later, the screens of both Speedy and Orlando started flashing rapidly. I once again looked away. I glanced at my keyboard and mashed the buttons to take a screenshot.
F[]
My screen during the second glitch.
I should mention that I looked at the profiles of Speedy and Orlando following the incident. Both of them had had their profile pictures changed to two different odd images, and I haven't seen any trace of them since. Nothing noteworthy or even remotely unusual happened after that incident until November 22nd of 2019, which is when I'll be fast-forwarding too. I had thought it was an ordinary day. After all, the incident was a half a year ago. I once again logged on to Databrawl Roleplay as usual, getting ready to roleplay with Todad and Psellismo (who I had befriended since the whole ordeal). I go in the game, and what do I see? The menu is once again an utter MESS, just like last time. The main difference, however, was that the screen was now covered in blue text that stated "HYPNOTIZE". The face was also different from last time.
I finally managed to get in the game, playing Werehybrid this time, instead of Thornware. I join the game, and my control are completely messed up. Pressing W makes me go left, A makes me go down, it was terrible. Out of frustration, I got up from my computer and went over to the kitchen to soothe myself with a tasty snack. As I walk in, I turn over to the kitchen table. It was the blue chip! It wasn't a chip, however: it was a USB stick, for some reason. I noticed that it even had the word "PRIVATE" written on it as well! How it got here, I simply couldn't explain. I forgot all about my snack and picked up the stick. I then carried it over to my computer desk and sat down to think for a moment. Should I plug it in? I decided that I'd think it over later. I turned to my computer and continued to try and play the game. It was so broken with visual glitches and the like that it was rendered unplayable, and I gave up and quit.
I took a break from playing and decided to catch up on some homework. It took a good two and a half hours, much longer than I expected. When I came back, I saw that I had missed a message from Todad about two hours ago.
Todad: "Me and Psellismo found this cool maze area when we tried to go to the box dimension. We're in a forest now. It's pretty interesting. I'll let you know if I see anything cool, and maybe you can come check it out for yourself later."
The dreaded realization hit me as I read the message. I had to warn them! Unfortunately, it was much too late now. I checked Todad and Psellismo's profiles. They were both offline, and both had their profiles changed. I haven't heard from them since, either. That made five people. Five people had disappeared because of... whatever that THING was. I don't even really want to think about it. Now, it is February 29th, 2020. May 17th, the anniversary of the first incident, will be coming up soon. Needless to say, I'm quite worried. Today, I finally decided to plug in the blue USB stick. I figured that there was no point in waiting even longer. The thing contained tons of files, of which I've only looked at one so far (I need to get to the rest). It was an mp3 file, and I excitedly opened it up. I gave it a listen.
Oh. I remember this song.