The CPU Series

The CPU Series is a collection of short stories written by TheJosh347. They were intended to set up the story for his game, Supernova, unfortunately the project was then scrapped. The final story was never finished with writing.

For me, it was your average Friday, trying to finish work and to relax a soon as possible. On that day I was thinking about buying a new video game. Specifically, a Mega Man game because I couldn’t find my copy of Mega Man II. I headed over to the nearby thrift store and headed on over to the video game section. There were so many good games! Mario 64, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Castlevania II, SoulCalibur II, and of course, Mega Man II. There were even some games I have never heard of like Sonic.exe, Thank You For Playing Rayman, a 1995 beta of SM64, Super Mario 128, A Majora’s Mask copy labeled “BEN DROWNED”, There were even two arcade cabinets. One being something called “Polybius” and one just called “Pac-Man” but the font was different. I grabbed the Mega Man II game and was ready to check out. I noticed something on the cartridge. It was the same cover art as the original, but the words Mega Man II were crossed out in black marker, and instead, it just said “Mega”. This problem was easy to fix though I could just erase it with permanent marker removal, no big deal. I went up to the checkout and placed the game down. The cashier there asked if this was the game you wanted. He suggested other games like Super Mario Land, Tetris, and even Mega Man III, but I stuck with Mega Man II. I asked how much it would cost. She told me it was only 1 cent. It felt almost like she wanted to get rid of the game as soon as possible. I bought it anyway and left the store. I was on my way home to play the game.

At home, I put my new copy of Mega Man II into the GameBoy, I turned it on and it did the intro when you turn it on. I waited for a little, and it acted like there was nothing inserted in the slot! I thought maybe my GameBoy was broken. I tried My GameBoy Color next. Nothing. My GameBoy Advance. Nothing. My GameBoy Player. Still nothing. Maybe it could work on my PC. I hooked up my setup so I could access the files on the cartridge. And somehow... It worked! I looked at the files at and it was a .exe file. No wonder it didn’t work. Was this a pirated game? Is that why the cashier wanted to get rid of it?

Anyways, I loaded up the game and was greeted with the average title screen and title theme, but something with the song was off. It felt different. Like one of the notes was slightly altered. Maybe the song was a little higher pitched. I’m not sure. I chose select and the game started at the player select screen. All it showed was Metal Man. So I selected Metal Man and the level started. It started as normal. I jumped across a few platforms and then I came across an enemy. I killed it of course as any player would, but then I noticed something. When I killed that enemy, there was blood. This wouldn’t happen in a normal copy. Maybe this was a ROM hack. I’m not sure. Also when I killed it there was a new meter that showed up on the screen. It was labeled “Sanity Meter”. What did that mean? Was he going crazy by killing these enemies? No, it couldn’t be. I kept on playing. Again, most of the level was normal until something unusual happened. There was a blockade of enemies I had to kill. Did the game want me to get the meter up? No, It’s just a game, what’s the worst thing that could happen? I killed the enemies with my blade and the meter went up. It was only 1 kill away from being full. I didn’t want to know what would happen when it was full so I dragged the files to the trash and went to bed. I was safe now. I deleted the game.

The next morning I went to my computer and turned it on. The first thing I was thinking of doing was to play some FNAF because I love those games so much and I wanted to replay them. Once my computer finished loading I noticed something on my desktop. It was the Mega Man II File but it was renamed to “WHY DID YOU DELETE ME?” This was creepy. I decided to delete the file again and this time to empty the trash. After it emptied it appeared on my desktop again and this time it was labeled “STOP, DON’T YOU WANT TO PLAY?” I deleted the file once more and now it said “LOAD THE FILE TIM!” How did it know my name? I didn’t want to get creeped out anymore so I loaded the file.

It started where I left off. It was still 1 kill from being full. I was almost at the end of the level so then I could end this mess! Then I saw a new sort of enemy I haven’t ever seen before. I looked and acted like the blaze from Minecraft. It was shooting balls everywhere. I hated it, it was so annoying. I had to kill it. Once I did the screen went black. Did my computer turn off? No, the light was still on. I looked to my left and looked at the power outlet. The power cord for my computer was unplugged! How was it still on? Then I noticed something on my screen. It was Metal Man’s blood-thirsty face. He looked real. Was he trying to get me next? He seemed to reach his hand out. He stepped out of my computer, took out his blade, and that is all I remember.

And that is the story of how I died.

It was Saturday. The day before was payday and today I felt like buying something. I went to Game Stop only to find it was closed today. There was another game store next door that nobody goes to. It’s called “Game Shop”. I walked into the store to find an old man sitting bored at the check-out. There seemed to be only one employee and no customers today. I looked around and most of the games seemed to be ROM hacks or just games I have never heard of before like Animal Crossing: Dead Leaf, Paper Mario TTYD: Rest in Peace, Pokemon Fog Gray, Mega, and a game just called “7”. One of the games was a Game and Watch game, specifically the game Ball. I went to the checkout and asked the man how much money he wanted for it. He simply only wanted 16 bucks which was a good deal because it normally costs way more. I simply gave him the money and left. I was on my way home now.

I had a lot of Game and Watch games and this was one of them that I didn’t have. I sat down on my couch to play it. It was the normal playthrough, you juggle some balls, gain points and that’s it. It was still cool to have another rare-ish game. I am a huge game collector and have the entire N64 library. I even have the McDonalds DS and the Nintendo Playstation. I was ready to put the game down for now, until something weird happened. When I got to 1000 points, the game stopped and the screen went black. Odd. Then I heard that iconic beeping sound and then a message popped up saying “He is watching”. Then I heard beeping on all of my Game and Watch systems. What was happening? I checked some of them and they all said “He is watching.” I smashed all of them to pieces and cried in the corner.

I never found out who was watching. And I never hope I do.

I loaded up a new seed and spawned next to a Woodland Mansion! What?!?! These are extremely rare. I raided the mansion and got a few totems. I was now on my way to the nether. I traveled a few blocks and I found a ruined portal, I checked in the chest and found a Protection IV Chestplate and an Unbreaking III pair of boots, I put them on and it looked great. I also found 3 pieces of obsidian. This was all I needed to finish the portal. All I needed to light it was flint and steel. Luckily, I found a river nearby with some gravel. I mined my first piece of gravel and got a piece of flint! I put together my iron and the flint to make flint and steel. I lighted the portal and was in the nether

My spawn was in the nether fortress. I found the blaze spawner and killed the blazes. I got blaze rods and turned them into powder. Now I needed to trade. I took my gold I got from the ruined portal and traded with the piglings. They all gave me pearls. I got 16 of them. Perfect! I left the nether and was going for the stronghold.

My luck was too insane. I threw one of the pearls and it went behind me. I followed it and it dropped. It was heading towards an ocean. I crafted a boat and started rowing my boat towards the stronghold. Then I noticed something. There was a little wooden pyramid in the ocean. Was this included in the new update? Was it supposed to be rare like the brick pyramid was? I’m not sure. I passed it up and saw land. I climbed ashore and I noticed a 2x2 tunnel on my left. I didn’t want to explore it because I was focused on the stronghold. In front of me, I saw a tall tower of gold blocks topped with netherrack and lit on fire. This didn’t seem to be added in an update, and I was starting to doubt the game was bugged. I came across a spruce forest and went inside. I saw something in the corner of my eye. It was the default Minecraft skin but with no eyes. I turned around to face it. He was no longer there. I double-checked my game mode and it said, single player. I decided to log off for now.

Who was that? What was that? What was the tower? Why was there a pyramid? I had so many questions. I decided to take a nap and come back later. I wish I hadn’t. That night I dreamed about the figure. I was mining for diamonds and then I heard that cave sound. I turned around and saw it. Its blank eyes stared at me. His expressionless face unsettled me. This was horrifying I tried to wake up but I couldn’t. And then I figured out why.

I went to your local game store and they didn’t have what I was looking for. They did have another SoulCalibur game that I didn’t have. It was “SoulCalibur: Souls” on the PS3. By looking at the box art and the back it looked pretty fun. Though, it looked like it was pre-owned due to some black marker writing titled “Eric”. I hate it when people put their names on pre-owned games. It just drives me crazy. I looked inside and it looked like there was your average blu-ray disc with the words titled “Soul” on it. This freaked me out for a little bit until I realized it was just the title of the game. I looked on the other side of the case and there seemed to be no manual. The only thing that was there was a piece of binder paper. I unfolded it for it to read, “Follow the instructions in the game. Don’t look at ḣ̖̻͛̓ỉ͔͖̜͌ḿ̬̏ͤͅ.” Don’t look at him? What was that supposed to mean? I guessed maybe it was just instructions for the final boss assuming that this is sort of a manual. On the price tag, it said it was around twenty dollars. It seemed like a good price and so I bought it. I was heading home now.

Remember when in SoulCalibur II link made an appearance? Well, in this one Mario seemed to join the roster. That was another reason why I wanted to play it.

As soon as I got home I wanted to search up this game. I typed the title of the game in the search bar. It said, “No results”. I was very confused. Why did it show no results? I clicked refresh and now it said “1 Result” The link was labeled “19151812.carrd.co” I clicked on the link and in the corner it said “Not secure”. The only thing on the site was an audio file. I listened to it and it sounded all distorted and creepy. I decided to put it through a spectrogram to see if there was a hidden message. I put it through and saw a little image. It was a very detailed drawing of a single demon eye. Why was that there? Was that why the manual said, “Don’t look at ḣ̖̻͛̓ỉ͔͖̜͌ḿ̬̏ͤͅ”?I just decided to boot up the game

I grabbed my PS3 from my closet and hooked it up to my TV. I plopped the disc in it and did the normal thing until it ejected. I checked if the disc was dirty and it seemed to be in mint condition. Not a scratch. I put it in again. Nothing. I put in my copy of Madden NFL 2009 to see if it was the disc or just my PS3. I inserted it and it worked completely fine. I tried to insert the SoulCalibur disc a few more times and it suddenly worked. I selected the game and it started to load. It did the intro to the game and it looked fun. I pressed start and for one small flash all of the colors turned inverted and there was a giant bloody M. I didn’t get to see much because it was just a flash and I couldn’t take in much. It started and the roster was the same as any other SoulCalibur game. There was one locked player though. I guessed it was Mario. I selected Maxi and the game started

It seemed to be normal. My opponent was Nightmare and we fought normally. I never was that good at the game, but at least I tried. Though, some of the combos didn’t work. Maybe it was my controller of just or the copy of the game. Long story short, I lost the game and decided to just go to the character selection again.

I hovered over the Mario character and it said to unlock it you need to play as Nightmare and fall off the ledge 50 times. This was an awkward task, but all that I care about is unlocking Mario. I selected Nightmare and started to do the thing it wanted me to do. I selected nightmare and started falling off. It took forever because I had to set up a new match and then the cutscene played. I got around 25 of them and then I realized it was 11:00 PM and I needed to go to bed

I woke up and had breakfast. I would get the other 25 when I came back from work. I’m an indie game developer that likes to make scary games. I don’t know why, but I just like to make them. When I got back home, I immediately grabbed my PS3 and booted it up. I loved Mario growing up and I wanted to see him fighting in this game. When I loaded it up that same flash happened. By now, I just assumed it was part of the starting cutscene. I once more selected Nightmare and started jumping off the ledge. One weird thing happened when I was at 49 times. All of the colors on the screen turned inverted and all ghost-like. I started to hear that audio file that I found on the site. I jumped off the edge one last time and the screen went black. I saw a very faint message reading

“Do you want to play with me?

Wait what? Why was that there? I assumed it was just the final boss taunting me. It now went back to the title screen and once more, the flash was there. Once it loaded I could see that I could play as Mario now. I hovered over it and he was labeled “Mar”. Maybe the game was bugged and it didn’t show the rest of his name. I selected Mario and the screen went black. Then, the screen flashed with Mario’s face. His eyes seemed to be removed. There were blood stains under where his eyes were supposed to go. It had a blank face. No smile at all. It felt like it was looking at me. Even though it didn’t have eyes. It started to flash rapidly on screen and slowly inching its way towards me. I unplugged my PS3 and started feeling really tired. It was midnight this time. I went to bed and slowly closed my eyes. But when I did, I saw the face again. I woke up and started looking around. Once I blinked I saw his face. Getting closer and closer. I decided to stay up since I didn’t want to know what would happen if I went to bed. I stayed up until about 1 AM and then started to really get tired. I just decided to rest my eyes for a little while. Maybe a few minutes or so. Minutes suddenly became hours and I soon forgot to wake up. Mario was right at my face by now. And then once he got even closer to me all I could see was nothing. And then I seemed to have woken up and walked around, but I wasn’t at the normal first person view. I was in third person. How was my body moving? My body suddenly looked at me and it had bright yellow eyes. I suddenly realized that I was possessed. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Those were the words on my game and watch consoles. After smashing them (Yeah I know that was dumb), I went over to my game collection and picked a game from my childhood. I Spy: Castle. My older brother, Tim, had given it to me for Christmas when I was really young. That was the first video game I ever played and it is still very fun. I sort of lost my old DS, but I bought a new one recently. I took out the game from the case and it was still there. The same save file from when I first got the game was there. I selected the old game file, because I wanted to know if everything was still there and stuff

It loaded up and spawned me outside. I entered the castle and everything was there. I decided to go to the dining room and everything was still there. I had beat the entire game so there was nothing to do really. I did notice something however, there was a new backwards arrow added in the game. Maybe it was an update. I clicked on it with my stylus and It made me turn around. What I saw wasn’t pleasant. It was a black, tall, and skinny ghost-like figure. The screen started glitching out and flashed a sentence saying “I see you”. It booted me back to the title screen. When I clicked on my old save file, it didn’t let me load it. I couldn’t copy or delete it. It was just there.

I decided to load up a new file. It loaded me outside. I put down the drawbridge and entered the castle. When I was there I wasn’t greeted by anybody as usual. Odd. I Went to the Dining Room and the back arrow wasn’t there. I Decided to just back out and try another section. I pressed B and nothing happened. Strange. Then, the arrow showed up. I didn’t want to press on it, so I ejected the cartridge without turning off the system. The odd part is that I could still play even with it not being in. I continued and pressed the arrow. It was that same tall, skinny, and black figure. Just standing.

I closed my DS and put it on my shelf. That… thing sure was strange. What was it though? Maybe it was an update. Whatever it was, I don’t care. It’s just a game. It can’t hurt me. Can It?

I went to a store called Carlton’s and I entered the building. The funny thing was that that is my last name. It’s old and dusty. There seemed to have been no customers for weeks. Most of the games I have never heard of. Sonic.exe? Mega? I go up to the man. He looked all old and dead on the inside. No expression at all. I asked him if he had the new animal crossing game. He went in the back to see if he had any copies. He came back and said he didn’t have the new one but he has this old one he found. It was an old and dusty N64 Cartridge. The paper had been half torn off and the plastic a bit melted and warped from the sun. It had some black marker writing on it. It read “Animal Crossing: Old Horizons. 05-19-00 Build. DO NOT PLAY.” It had a price tag sticker of only 16.99 dollars. I guessed I could add this to my N64 library so I bought it and went over to play it.

I plopped it into the slot (thankfully it fits and isn’t ruined because of the warping) and it took a little longer to load than normal. But then the nice and cheery Animal crossing theme was playing and it was a nice welcome. I pressed start and then I was on the train. However, nobody also hopped on the train. Not even Rover.

It eventually loaded up to the town. It was night. No cutscene or anything. I went over to where Tom Nook is and he gave me a nice house to live in. He tells me “You have 1 hour to pay the debt. O̖̼ͩ͌͐r̴̨̦͕̝ ẹ̿͋̒̕l̙͖̑̾ͣs̠҉͍͊ͅẹ̿͋̒̕” Tom then left the room. I felt a chill down my spine. In the top left corner there was a box that said “0 out of 1,000,000 bells paid”. One million bells? How on earth was I going to make that much money? I had to at least try.

I caught a lot of fish, some bugs, and dug up some gold. When I sold it I only got 1,000 bells. I had 20 minutes left and I’m nowhere near done. Now I was rushing to catch as many fish and bugs that I could find. Selling fossils, tools, practically anything that I could find. Then I saw my clock. It was ticking down. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0… I started hearing loud and fast footsteps in the game. And then out of nowhere, Tom Nook came running at me with an ax at an incredible speed. He slaughtered my character and then the screen turned black and went to static.

I ejected this horrible game and returned it to the store. What an odd experience. Definitely not picking that game up again.

I sit on the sofa to relax and calm down. Then I hear some noises behind me. I turned around and there seemed to be a portal there. It started to suck everything in. And then eventually. It sucked me in. I appear at some kid’s room and I look at his PC. He has a game loaded up that is simply titled. “Death.io”

I was on the IO games site when I found out they were releasing a new IO Game. It was going to be called “Death.io”. The objective was to get as many kills before the timer runs out. An average IO game. It said it was coming out next month. It sounded fun so I placed the date on my calendar and went off to sleep.

The next morning, I went online to look at youtube. I got a notification saying that Death.io had just dropped. Huh, I guess they got done sooner than they expected. I typed in the URL into my search bar and it worked! The game was playable! I typed in my username and pressed start. When I did, the game was completely different than I expected. It was a 3d game, VHS effect, and it looked like it was played on the Virtual Boy. I was surrounded by 4 doors. They were all damaged and broken. A black text said “Choose a Door”. I went with the 3rd one because that could never go wrong. I entered the door and there was another black text that said “Wrong Answer, Karl”. It knew my name? That wasn't what I had typed as my username. My PC turned off and then I tried to turn it back on. It worked thankfully. I logged in and it said. Wrong Answer, Password Changed. Did somebody Hack my account? I tried and tried to get in but nothing worked

After an hour of trying, I got back in. There was a text file open saying. “Silly Child” I exited out and another one popped up. “Wrong Choice. IP logged” it read. Did somebody just leak my IP? I started to hear some whirling sounds. I turned around to find… a portal? Out stepped my cousin, Luke Carlton. And my neighbor, Jake Bancroft (I don’t like him that much). “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked