There are a lot of things in the world that are terrifying.
Monsters, ghosts, people. There are a lot of things that humans are scared of.
But there are also different ways people deal with fear.
There are usually two types of individuals when met with something scary: Running from the horror and running towards it.
People who like scary things are the reasons why scary movies, games, and haunted houses exist but while there are people who love getting scared there are others who can't handle it.
I used to be in the category that loved it but that was before I met the game Rotting with Dawn.
"Seriously this game became shitty as hell."
I brush my hair out of my eyes staring at the computer screen with dead eyes.
I was playing the game Rotting with Dawn because I was bored but it didn't take long for me to discover how much of a shitty horror game it was.
And because I liked torturing myself for playing the game I was reading the posts of how confusing it was to fans that their beloved characters had changed from oldest to latest.
[Kieran is starting to act differently now, does anyone have any theories?]
-It must be because of some future fable.
-I thought I was the only one who was thinking that!
-Yeh its like he's back to his old annoying self. I wonder why?
[What happened to SiIa, she's starting to be really annoying?]
-She's seriously pissing me off right now what the hell happened!!
-What's with the developers right now it's not even just Sila, most characters are being so annoying!
-Who knows there might be a reason, let's wait and see.
All of the fans were hoping to find an answer to this turn of events but as time went on the characters started acting stranger as if all their character development had been erased and their former bad qualities had increased tenfold.
[I'm getting tired of how all the characters are becoming worse people than when they started I think I'm gonna drop Rotting with Dawn]
-I actually might drop it too. The characters are seriously going to be the death of me, even my baby Koen couldn't escape it…
-I want to believe that there's a reason for this but I'm starting to think the developers stopped caring about this game.
⌞The company does have other games coming out they probably stopped caring about this one.
-Is it weird that I still have hope for this game? Maybe there is some plot twist!
⌞That might be the case I'm with you on this!
⌞I'm the same I just can't give up on it!
Even when people were hopeful for a change, things started to get worse when one by one the characters would die randomly making the game go from a psychological horror to just plain old gore.
People started to drop the game with each of their favorite characters' death, the backlash was evidently harsh.
Articles and videos came out to talk about the hatred of the game and how it became the worst horror game anyone could ever play.
[How could they do this to Hael!? Not only was his character completely erased and turned into complete garbage, they decided to offer us no hope of him changing by brutally murdering him. I can't take it anymore. I'm dropping this god awful game.]
-They are doing this to all the characters, it's complete garbage!?
-I can't deal with this. I'm dropping it too.
-It's the same with Yuna! How could the developers think this was a good idea!?
***
Seeing all of this going down with my own eyes made me harden my belief of how awful Rotting with Dawn really was…though I was actually still playing the game.
I was pretty late to the hype of the game and I only picked it up when everybody else left it but there were still updates despite how there was probably nobody else playing it.
The game mostly focused on Fables; entities based on the lives others had lived, whether it was from their memories, aspirations, feelings, or nightmares.
Their stories were both heartwarming and dreadful. To make them disappear you either needed a character who could just use brute force or to please them by fulfilling their wishes.
Pick a wrong option and the player would die. The game was stressful as hell and you had to pay attention to seemingly small details.
Many people dropped it after seeing just how difficult it was but hard-core fans stayed for the well-written characters, but they didn't last long. Both the fans and the characters.
Since it was cheap and the illustrations were good I figured that playing the game would be a good way to kill time.
However seeing all the beloved characters slowly becoming more and more corrupted, doing awful things that they would never do before, and then dying without repenting made my mental state a mess.
It was seriously addicting though.
Even with all the gore and each character that I once understood dying I still wanted to find out what would happen next.
But if I'm being realistic the developers probably were planning to kill every single character that was left and then bring the game to an end and focus on a different one.
"Hah…why am I even bothering?"
It's not like I could save them or anything plus the only progress that was occurring was the world slowly being destroyed by fables. But even that was starting to become boring.
The plot becoming dogshit made sense though, characters drive the plot and if the characters are trash of course it would be the same for the plot.
While I was staring at the screen regretting my decision to start the game my ears started ringing loudly. I couldn't hear anything else but the piercing sound.
…Shit.
Cough cough gasp.
My eyes tear up from the pain as I cough up blood. My head feels like it's going to explode.
It hurt like hell.
Times like these make me wish this pain could just swallow me up and end my suffering.
Maybe the reason I was so addicted to Rotting with Dawn was because I was on the brink of death like the game was.
After the pain subsided, I drank the bottle of water from my desk.
I don't have any diseases after checking with a bunch of different doctors and getting different prescriptions. Nothing seemed to fit with what was happening to me.
I've had these random pains since I was nineteen and I still have them at twenty-five but no matter how much I tried to find a reason for it I never succeeded.
For so long it felt like I had one foot in the grave and my death seems closer than ever before.
But strangely enough the thought of dying doesn't scare me as much anymore, probably because all this time I've been mentally preparing for my death.
And if I'm going to die I hope it's in this apartment building.
Making this apartment seem like bad luck then having someone rent the place because it got cheaper and start fearing it was haunted would be a cliche development that I would have created myself.
"Hah."
Can't help but laugh lifelessly at myself.
I should seriously write a book with how creative I am but alas I only have the attention span to do completely useless things.
As if Rotting with Dawn heard its name, a notification from the game popped up on my computer.
I clicked on it without a second thought.
※Last update of Rotting with Dawn please check it out.※
What?
How unexpected I figured it would take a few more updates till the ending but I guess I was wrong.
I opened the game on my computer and watched as it loaded, slow as usual.
I felt empty.
I should have felt at least a little bittersweet that the game I put so much time into was coming to an end but if I actually did feel something akin to sadness from this game then that would mean I cared for it.
It would be insane to actually not want such a game to end I would basically be asking for some gruesome torture if I wanted Rotting with Dawn to continue!
※Welcome to Rotting with Dawn the last update has finally arrived!※
||Start||
I was about to click the button with my mouse when I started another coughing fit.
Cough cough gasp cough.
'This is unexpected!'
I never had this happen so soon after my first one!? What's going on? It feels as if my throat is going to burst from the pressure.
Blood splattered on my desk from my coughing fit. I writhed in pain, tears pricking my eyes.
I'm exhausted. I almost want to die if it means finally escaping this pain…
I looked at my screen with my blurred sight but I could still see the start button as if it was staring right at me.
With a trembling hand I brought my mouse to it and clicked it.
I couldn't focus my attention anymore as my eyes blurred.
Am I going to die from this? It really feels like I am.
The only thing I can think about is the game.
Even though I complained about the game being trashy and a waste of time I still wanted to see it off to the end…
I could barely register the crack of dawn bringing light to the room, it was almost blinding shining on my face.
I vaguely heard a ding coming from my computer as I lost consciousness.
Everything went black.