Cursed jumbotron

NOTICE: The original (unedited) story is on reddit (r/RecroomCreepypastas). That story was written by me, and this entire story was written by me! The reason I created this is because there are not many recroom creepypastas. This story is about a lost level in a video game.
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(This story is fictional, and the narrator is not me)
I like to play recroom original rooms all the time! This is the reason I play VR, because of how fun recroom is. I really like quests and paintball the most, and sometimes laser tag. When I'm feeling tired and non-competitive, I will hop on bowling or 3D charades. You will rarely see me in any custom room or holding a real maker pen, I just come for the socialization and competitive games! Many of my friends say I should check out more, and that there is much more to recroom than recroom originals, but I just love recroom originals.
Quests are still my second favorite with paintball being the first. I have S-rank on every quest and I carry people often. Despite me being very good at it, I do not like jumbotron. I don't know why, but it's just a "meh" for me. I cheered and favorited the room like I do for all the recroom originals, and I still play it sometimes, but that quest is very aggravating to me. There's just something so annoying about the constant friendly fire, and the spammed enemies from every corner of the rooms, and how you have to wait for that stupid video to play on the screen in the spaceship level. And I'll admit it's difficult, it's still the one quest I cannot complete solo. And the thing I hate most about it is the assassin bots. I hate how they take forever to kill and they are very easy to avoid. I also hate that bug that causes them to spam "target acquired" very loudly all at once.
Anyways, my friends seem to somehow enjoy jumbotron. They call me crazy for calling that quest stupid all the time. Whenever I see them there, I never join them. But today was the last day of the week and I have yet to complete the weekly challenge since I haven't been playing recroom frequently. I had already completed golden trophy and killed 5 opponents in rec royale. The other 3 options were: Play 10 games of paintball, beat the jumbotron quest, or play 5 games of rec rally. There was no time to play 10 games of paintball, or rec rally, since there were only 10 minutes left on the weekly. The only option I had was to beat jumbotron. I saw my friend was playing jumbotron so I immediately joined him.
He was in a public server. Of course. There were two little kids playing on screen mode with an extremely loud mic friendly firing both of us all the time. I managed to ask my friend over the screams of the children if he had gotten the weekly yet. He said "yup, have you?" I told him that we had to go super fast so I can get the weekly. I didn't really care if I got it or not, but I felt determined. I really hated the feeling of "not too late."
Anyways, things went way downhill. My friend lost connection somehow, and once he disconnected one of the kids invited someone into the room. It was another screen mod player with no mic, who was at level 1. At this point I knew there was no way we would beat the quest in time, and we probably wouldn't even beat it at all, but I supposed if my friend could tolerate these kids then maybe I could. However, the person they invited was going painfully slow. He slowly walked over to us, stopping to look at random objects on the way and dying from his own grenades that he set off for no reason, and he just refused to stand on the platform. I tried votekicking them but it said I reached my votekick limit. Just great.
Once we finally got to the other room, I couldn't barely walk 3 feet without getting friendly fired. The kids would scream very loudly when they saw the assassin bots and they would refuse to say sorry or revive me when I got friendly fired. I just tried to ignore them and I continued my task of killing the bots. I had to take down the assassin bots on my own since the kids were busy playing with grenades and shooting at each other on purpose. I looked at my watch to check how much time I had left on my weekly. 1 minute left. Wow, these kids really drag things out.
The assassin bot turned towards me saying "target acquired" the very last second before the weekly changed. Oh well. The new weekly looked better than the one I was trying to get so I figured a fresh new start is fine. But just then, the game crashed. It did that thing where the screen gets stuck and it hurts your eyes to look at. I spent time waiting for it, but of course it didn't fix itself so I had no choice but to exit recroom and come back. But actually, I didn't feel like playing recroom anymore so I just shut off my device completely.
Two days later I went back into recroom to grind the weekly. Everything was normal. I spawned into my plain dorm room and started scrolling through the games I could play. For some reason I felt in the mood for some stunt runner, so I went to play it. As I was in the middle of the game I could hear what sounded like a jumbotron bot talking very quietly in my left ear but I just ignored it. I finished the game then went on to showdown, a much smaller game. Then when I was done playing with that I went on to the rec center to hang out. I once again heard the jumbotron bot sound, except this time I could tell what it was. It was an assassin bot saying "target acquired." Strange, must of been someone with their mic.
The next day I logged into recroom, and once I spawned in my dorm I immediately heard that "target acquired" sound effect again. It sounded like it was far off in the distance. I got out my maker pen and tried flying around to see anything but it as just a normal, plain, dorm room. I just continued on with playing recroom originals and hanging out in the rec center that day, except while I was doing it I kept hearing that "target acquired" sound. It seemed to get louder and louder every time I heard it. I figured it must be a weird recroom bug, like that time they banned the letter "h" on accident. They must of accidentally replaced a sound file or something. I laughed at the thought of that.
I went into the reddit discord to talk about it and see if anybody else was hearing an assassin bot randomly. Of course nobody was helpful and they responded with jokes or just a plain "no." Strange, maybe it's a really rare bug, or an obscure issue with my headset, or maybe just my mind.
But the next few days it kept getting worse. The "target acquired" sound seemed to be getting slightly louder and more frequent. Sometimes I could hear it in my left ear, sometimes in my right ear, and sometimes right in front of me. Whenever I heard it in the rec center I would ask people if they heard it too, and they would always say no. At this point, I couldn't help but hope it would stop happening.
But it didn't stop happening. It kept getting worse. Sometimes I would be sitting in complete silence or chatting like normal, then all of a sudden I would hear a loud "target acquired" sound frighten me like a jumpscare. I started to get worried, and I would frantically talk about it on the recroom discord and reddit. Some people believed me, some people didn't.
It was until one day, I logged into recroom and something crazy happened.
Before I even spawned in my dorm room, I could hear loud "target acquired" sounds cutting in and out on the loading screen. Once I spawned in, all I could here was "target acquired" being spammed very loudly and hurting my ears. I had to turn down my volume since it was hurting my ears. As all this was going on, my game started lagging a lot and it looked like the game was about to crash. Suddenly, the screen went black and the sound stopped. I couldn't hear it, but I could see the loading screen. I was being taken to a room. I was still so shocked that I didn't even get a chance to read what room it was, but I figured I accidentally pressed the rec center door.
When I spawned in whatever room this was, it as definitely not what I was expecting. I was in the jumbotron lobby, except, everything was red and dark and there was a loud eerie ambience playing in the background. I could hear the guitar strum sound and coach saying "ready to start" except it was super loud in my ears almost like a bass boost or distortion effect. every few seconds I could hear "target acquired" being said in the background. I was so confused and scared I didn't even know what was happening. I was thinking maybe some dirty hacker did this and they are about to play a jumpscare in my face. I quickly opened my watch to check the room I was in, but my heart dropped once I saw that I didn't have a watch. It just opened up the control options as if I was in orientation.
I decided it was time to quit recroom, but before I did, I wanted to get a picture of the place. My camera appeared but it said "lens covered, please move back." So I wasn't able to get a picture. I tried taking a picture with my oculus screen capture, but every time I opened up my menu the game would turn black and the screenshots would turn out all black. I quickly shut off my oculus and screamed about it on the recroom discord. Nobody believed me, they thought I was joking or something.
The next day I hesitantly opened up rec room again to see what was going on. Everything was normal on the log in screen, so I figured everything was fine after all. However, after the loading screen, instead of spawning in my dorm room I ended up spawning in that red, dark, jumbotron lobby again. I heard a guitar strum and coach saying "ready to start" super loudly almost like a bass boost. When the text on the screen appeared telling me what room I was in, it said "^you_are_the_target"
That's when I remembered what happened when the weekly timer ended. I specifically remember just now that an assassin bot turned towards me saying "target acquired" right before the weekly ended. Could this be why I was here? Well, I needed to figure out. I started roaming around the lobby. There was a dark and slow ambience playing at a normal volume in the background, nothing I've ever heard in recroom before. The room was super red and everything appeared like a deep fried effect was placed over it. It was also pretty lag in there. The lobby looked the exact same though, despite all the color and lighting differences. I started getting unsettled about how dark the place was, so I started the game by clicking the scoreboard to see what would happen.
There was no jumbotron jingle like there usually is once you click the start button. It was just 10 seconds of sitting there with no noise but a creepy ambience and the sound of me picking up the shotgun to glitch it in. I jumped when coach said "game on" in my ear super loudly. Once I spawned in the gear room, there was an extremely loud alarm blasting quickly and it kept rapidly switching from my left ear to my right ear. I was getting so fed up with the loud noises that I just turned my volume down all the way. The lights were flickering in and out at a steady pace. It would turn all black, and then back to blaring red again. The mirror on the wall appeared to be broken.
I went to the next room to play. The room was still super red and dark. The bat bots spawned in like normal, so I started shooting them and playing the game like normally. It was like a jumbotron solo run except everything was dark, laggy, red, and scary. I wanted to get out, but I still didn't have my watch. I finished the first level, and it was very eerie walking in darkness to the door on my own. The next room was the same, everything was normal gameplay-wise. Or was it? I couldn't tell but the bots seemed to be more aggressive in this room. I completed the level without dying.
I made it to the next room, and the lasers were absolutely blaring. They didn't hurt my eyes, since the pixels in my headset can only go so high, but it made everything around it appear super red to the point where you could almost see nothing but bright red. I couldn't even tell what was going on, but once I struggled past the lasers I could see the sloped area where the tread bots would spawn. however, there were lasers on the other side of that so it was blaring red on the other side as well.
Well I didn't make it through those sets of lasers. I ended up dying. But instead of it saying "game over" and taking you back to the lobby, it just immediately spawned me back to the beginning of the level with everything reset. I had to play it again. Thank goodness, at least I knew what would happen if I died. It took about 10 minutes of struggling to finally make it past both sets of lasers and into the next room. After clearing that wave of enemies, the silence got to me. I decided to turn up the volume just barely so I could hear what was going on.
At first I wished I hadn't. Every enemy I killed screamed. But they didn't sound like the jumbotron robots at all. They sounded like realistic human screams. Blood-curling screams like someone was being tortured. I was more scared than confused. I wanted to turn the volume down but I was so focused on the gameplay I didn't have the time. Once I finished the final wave it played a super loud finish sound in my ear then lit a red light near the door to the next level. There were no more screams and it was just that creepy ambience again.
I changed my mind about turning down my volume. I wanted to hear it for some reason. I was attracted to the sound. In fact, I turned up my volume even more then entered the next room. I was still scared about how dark it was, but at least the sound design was top-notch.
The next level was that level with the assassin bots in it. The assassin bots were bright red. They didn't say target acquired once they spotted you, since they never did. They didn't even have a laser. They just stood there walking very slowly forward for some reason. I shot it's back with my double shotgun, and it didn't turn around or even say anything. I just kept shooting it until it died. But once I did, it let out the loudest most horrible scream I have ever heard. Nice! It sounded like someone being burned alive, which was epic. I was really starting to like this game after all. But, what was that? Blood? There was blood on the ground where I killed the assassin bot. I could tell something was different about the assassin bots for sure.
I continued on with the level, killing all the enemies while they screamed loudly, and killing the assassin bots as they screamed bloody murder and splattered blood all over the ground. I don't know why, but it just felt awesome to me, as if I was playing GTA or something. It definitely spiced up the gameplay. I just wish there were other people around.
I played the next level, and the next level, and the next level. Every time I died I just got reset and got to play it all over again! It was actually pretty fun, and the red darkness wasn't bothering me anymore. I could play it all day if I wanted to! The sound design was eerie but awesome, and the environment was creepy but in a good way!
Okay, I can't take it anymore! I admit this "red jumbotron" was the best thing I've played all year! Everything about it was perfect! I wish I could play it again so much. There is no other game like it, and I feel like it was a once in a lifetime experience made just for me! I don't know why recroom won't bring it back and let me play it just one more time! It's all I ask for!
Sorry about that, I just really loved red jumbotron so much. Sadly, all the fun ended once I reached the jumbotron boss. The screen on the jumbotron showed these creepy faces while screaming loudly at me. I was super confused, why was this happening? Well after about 5 minutes of constant screaming and no gameplay, the jumbotron fell to the ground and everything went back to normal. And by that I mean the room lit back up to the normal colors and there was no more of that awesome ambience. I even got my watch back. Everything was so silent and so... normal.
There was one chest on the platform. It was strange since I already got every item from jumbotron? Why was there a chest? The name was obscured by some rez effects that never went away, as if I wasn't meant to see the name. I tried opening it but it wouldn't work. This chest was for someone else. I looked around, but nobody was there. Odd.
I really wanted to play it again, but once I clicked the play button, it just brought me to a normal jumbotron lobby. Everything was normal. I was outraged that I wouldn't be able to play red jumbotron again. I felt like a better game to play was impossible to get to. Oh well, my battery was about to die anyways so I had to get off.
I talked on discord about my amazing experience that day but nobody seemed willing to listen. The next day I happily logged into recroom and spent the entire time trying to figure out how to play red jumbotron again. I check the rooms I recently played, but it wasn't there. I started screaming through my microphone out of frustration. I remembered the room name letter by letter, so I searched it in but couldn't find any results. I placed down my headset and searched for it on recnet, no results either. I even searched for it on google and youtube just in case. Nothing. I was getting very frustrated since I wanted to play red jumbotron again!
I started begging on the recroom discord server for the recroom developers to list it on the recroom originals tab, but nobody knew what I was talking about when I said "red jumbotron" or "^you_are_the_target." People thought I was trolling. I figured that the only way was to get in the way I got in there in the first place. I had to wait until the weekly timer was about to go out, then get an assassin bot to find me at the very last second. But it never worked. There were many times where I got so close but the assassin bots would ignore me. It's almost as if they are purposefully trying to prevent me from getting into red jumbotron again. One time, my game even crashed before I reached the assassin bot. I figured there was no hope.
So, that's just another reason I hate jumbotron now. It's so bland and boring, and it reminds me of all the fun I could be having in red jumbotron. The best thing I can do is produce the screams myself whenever killing the bots, and purposefully squint my eyes to obscure my vision. I don't do solo runs since I don't like starting from the beginning, but the other players are annoying because they always complain about my screaming. My friends say I'm very violent towards them and I seem to be having mental breakdowns all the time when I play jumbotron. They just don't understand the feeling of red jumbotron, and I wish they would get to play it one day.
Category:Recroom Creepypastas
Category:Video Game Creepypastas