Well, I didn't think that quietly lurking some mid rhythm game Wyvern server would lead me to sleeping in an inn in the middle of nowhere in Mexico, but for how badly my life's been up to this point, this may as well be the most exciting thing I've ever encountered.

I suppose some introductions are in order, first. Hello, I'm Jayce, better known as jayceSTAYSbass on most online communities I roam, and a couple of weeks ago, I, alongside a ragtag team of people who definitely know a lot more programming than I do, found myself caught up in a strange "game" of sorts. Well, it was less being caught in it and more of "getting a little too curious for my own good" which eventually got me ensnared into, well, this.

And I also suppose I should explain what "this" is. Granted, someone probably has an AlphaDoc already typed out of just about everything you need to know, but I gotta summarize it anyway. On September 4, a strange bot profile known as "Somnium" entered the Rhythm Circle server and asked the moderators for help on something. It's unclear what it was about since the mods mysteriously let it into the chat and none of them have answered our questions on what it is it were asking for, but the moment Somnium was in the chat, he very briefly disabled the whole server from speaking to create a separate channel for itself. Once we were allowed to talk again, Somnium left a single WeTube video in its channel with the message, "It's time."

Following this, most people on the server fucked around with the mystery guest, as most humans would do, and waves of bans were issued. Eventually the mods would close the channel off to the public, only being able to speak in the channel with a special role. Some only signed up to shitpost again, while a dedicated few decided to actually play along. This is where I would come in, though I only lurked in the beginning. Sure, I was mighty intrigued by this whole ordeal, but I didn't feel like I had any sort of contribution to give, considering the video we were given seemed to delve into cyphers I have never heard of until that day.

Speaking of, the video Somnium sent was pretty basic: just a single eye that remained open while a piano of sorts played in the background, and at random intervals, the eye would blink. Apparently the blinking was relevant; noting down each time it blinked gave us numbers that translated to letters of the alphabet. So like, 1 would be A, 2 would be B, and so on. Rearranging these would give us the sentence and the solution to our first riddle: TO WAKE UP.

Of course, while we had our solution, Somnium didn't accept it, as it needed to be turned in with an in-server command... which is where I finally got my spotlight. Looking around Somnium's WeTube channel, I managed to find a hidden video filled with nonsense comments, all from Somnium. One of these comments may have looked like another video ID, but I recognized it wasn't to WeTube, but to another video sharing site, FediVid, which I had only signed up for to watch one video my friend sent forever ago and never picked up since. The video I found there contained a single link, an invite to add an "AWAKE" bot to a server. Notifying the group of this and having the mods add the bot, we finally got our chance to submit the answer with one command, and almost instantly, Somnium responded by giving us a weird audio log as a reward.

The log in question was riddled with static, but amongst it, a lone voice called out for help softly. They wished to escape... someplace, with our only lead being that the voice sounded like he had a vague Mexican accent. ...and yes, I know what you're thinking. "Hey, isn't that where you are right now?" I'm getting there. Anyways, the log closed off with what sounded like morse code, but deciphering it only revealed a bunch of numbers that didn't have any purpose as of yet.

From that point forward, everyone working on this game immediately got serious. A dedicated Wyvern server was made for this "Alternate Reality Game", as it's apparently categorized, and Somnium even entered this server using a regular account instead of a bot account. We got some more information as more and more puzzles were thrown our way: Somnium is indeed the guy doing the audio logs, which means he needs our help. He's apparently been enslaved by a higher authority, being forced to go from location to location to work on confidential stuff without any hope for escape. During one such trip, he managed to steal a phone, which he wiped of data and made his own in secret while he wasn't travelling. In that time, he reached out to various servers, with no real hope, until he finally reached us in Rhythm Circle.

The stuff Somnium has us solve may seem trivial, but solving enough of them gave us audio logs with even more information to collect, and as we would find out later, they also gave us hints to future puzzles. One of the videos given to us outputted the answer "OCULUS VIDET", in which the second word would then be later used as part of a Caesar cypher in a puzzle that would show up a week later. Somnium also had his own alphabet, a sort of line on a grid for each letter of the alphabet. This is how he communicated with us through his videos, saying that he couldn't write in plain English directly while making videos, as he was always under constant surveillance.

Eventually, there would come a time where Somnium only spoke through his bot account. He stated that he was caught doing one puzzle for us, and now is being incredibly cautious where he goes. His next puzzle following this was incredibly vague to boot: bunch of images and patterns, all of which I didn't really follow through, but we did find the answer to it: START ANEW. This was followed by more random numbers that we initially didn't think led anywhere, until we combined the previous answers that consisted of only numbers and found that putting it all together formed coordinate locations. Inputting this into AlphaMaps pointed directly to some sort of ranch, and on the ground as of a year ago, next to a tree, was a black X painted in ink of sorts. And the ranch in question was -- you guessed it -- in Mexico.

And so we finally arrive to my current situation. I initially didn't want to do this, but everyone in the server either lived outside of North America or didn't have a car to travel to the location. Since I just happened to be the only person to meet both requirements, and Somnium was incredibly quiet about this, I basically had no choice but to get there by any means necessary. I decided to travel overnight so I could get to the location first thing in the morning, which meant having to stop by an inn close by. I kept everyone in the server updated on where I was, and that I was planning to stream my trek there first thing in the morning... which is where we are now.

I chatted for a bit about the game plan with the server: I was going to walk over there, retrieve whatever note was there, if any, and then get the hell out of there should there be no other distractions. I didn't expect anything out of the ordinary -- this was just a game, right? A very risky game that probably would have fallen apart if it wasn't for me, but a game nonetheless. From what I understood about these ARGs, all of the action is kept online so that as many people as possible have the opportunity to participate. If there was a need to go to a real-world location, it probably wouldn't be for long anyway.

The group, however, wasn't buying it. Most people just joking exclaimed I was about to be shanked, but a select few proclaimed that there would definitely be something else while I grabbed that note. Considering Somnium's supposed backstory, this could be just about anything from mock-up Secret Service dudes to an alien looking to probe their next victim. I didn't like the idea that I'm risking my life just to watch some possibly B-list skit evolve in front of my eyes, considering that is definitely NOT how I want to go out. Not like I had a choice at this point, though.

After saying my "goodbyes", I immediately turned on streamer mode and broadcast my phone camera in a server channel, with the volume completely muted. A few seconds later, and that phone would gently lie inside a fanny pack I had on, camera lens just barely sticking out of the bag while I secured it in place. I did a little movement test, just to make sure the phone was held steady, before finally gathering the remainder of my stuff in my inn room and heading out with the keys.

After checking out of the inn, I made a detour to toss my stuff back into my car, and then locked it with my keys. I didn't want to drive over there, even though it was much safer that way, because a car just stopping at some corner was already suspicious enough. Besides, the walk was just two blocks up in a straight direction, so I wouldn't be on foot for long. With all my belongings safe and my car having just an hour and a half before it would be towed away, I finally walked out of the inn's driveway and into the dirt road in front. One left turn later, and I would find myself to the side of the dirt road, walking up on it with one goal in mind: the note.

When I found the location on the map a few days ago, I took notice of a large tree nearby, as the black X was painted right in front of this tree. It was also at a sort of merge, where a lower dirt road would lead into the main path, with the tree and the X situated right at the intersection. While the rest of the eerily quiet neighborhood had changed in the year after the picture in AlphaMaps was taken, the tree remained situated where it was, an observation I could note from where I currently was. There wasn't any doubt the location exists, but would the note still be there, I wondered.

I was quite the quick walker, so I had already crossed one block in a minute or so. The tree was now more visible, and just below it, I could see... something in black laid out on the ground. That must have been it, I thought. After momentarily realizing I was, in fact, live, I eventually whispered very quietly to the phone in my bag while pointing directly at the tree.

"That's it right there..." I muttered. "I don't know if you guys can see it but the X mark seems to be there, too. Gotta get in a bit closer." I slightly picked up my step, closing the gap between me and the tree. I was about half a block's distance away, feeling the tension in my body building as I had no clue what to expect, before something else caught my eye to the side. While I didn't stop, I did turn my head to my right to see what it was: a medium-sized truck off in the distance, fast approaching the intersection where I would be. Sure, cars were uncommon here, but that shouldn't have been much of a concern... had I not also remembered a peculiar voice log Somnium had sent us once. He doesn't say much, as he was apparently around his superiors, but he did speak an out-of-place phrase just before the log cut off: "Yes, sir... Colorado bears are bad news."

I'm thankful I went through a weird phase of my adolescence where I was just... incredibly passionate about cars. I still keep up with vehicle news sometimes, but not enough for it to be a hobby of mine now. At least I could recognize what that car was. The truck looked to be... a Chevron, that's for sure, from the golden upward arrow... and the only line of trucks they had were a model called Ursa, as in "ursine", or bear... uh, didn't they also make a special version named after--

"Colorado bears are bad news! I gotta hide!" I stopped dead in my tracks and slightly slipped on the dirt as I immediately turned around and took cover inside some of the flora nearby. Being within unkept weeds and mud would be a small price to pay for my safety, and as I trawled across the putrid greenery, I took the chance to take my phone out of my bag, bringing it to my hand and switching its perspective to the front facing lens.

"Okay, sorry about that, uh..." In the brief moment I was looking at the screen, I saw the user icons in the voice chat flicker on and off like crazy, and I must have been receiving, like, two pings every five seconds. I gently whispered into the phone to reassure everyone I was okay. "Yeah, remember the Colorado bears thing that Somnium mentioned? I know what it is now. I saw a Chevron Colorado Ursa just up ahead. I think that's what he was-- Oh!"

In that moment, I heard the car approaching very quickly, seemingly coming to a stop as well. Rapidly switching perspectives back to the rear camera, I held my phone very close to my chest as the large, black truck crawled past me just seconds later, still hiding within the weeds. Once it was clear enough, I carefully waded around the weeds to have the camera get a better look at the truck, now stopping in its entirety on the intersection... parked just underneath the tree.

"Shit, I was so close!" I quietly cursed myself while I, alongside an entirely captivated Wyvern server, watched the truck turn off, and two people emerge seconds later from it. One was a tall man dressed in a suit befitting of government work, while the other person was still obscured by the truck, but they did not look happy to be here. I tried to zoom in on the truck so everyone in the call could see what was happening, but the image came out blurry. Still, I quietly described the scene that was unfolding.

"Okay, uh... there are two guys. One is definitely a Secret Service dude and, hm, the other kinda looks like some IT dude." I kept watching and describing what was going on as I got a better look at the second person as he stepped into view: a scrawny looking man, seemingly handcuffed by some weird looking restraints. It also appeared like he was wearing some bulky thing on one of his ankles, possibly a location tracker. Both of them now approached to under the tree and the taller dude pointed at the ground, seemingly in frustration.

"Oh no, I think he's pointing at the black X... thing on the ground." Almost as quickly as it was noticed, the tall man began shouting at the other person, but I couldn't hear too well what it was about. I kept my phone as steady as it could while I approached very slowly to the edge of the large, weeded area, my head just barely peeking out with phone in hand. The tall guy kept yelling at the smaller person all the while, and then suddenly, he turned around to the trunk and picked up a shovel, tossing it directly to the handcuffed man.

"Uhh... I think he's gonna dig up whatever was on the ground before I could get to it. Fuck, fuck..." A very quiet panic rose in me while I watched the captive dip the shovel into the ground the best he could and started digging away. The server also watched along, and I took a very brief moment to read the chat, immediately seeing some very strongly worded insults hurled at the tall dude. "Hm, glad we're on the same page. Fuck that guy."

One ping eventually blinked into existence at the top of my screen, from a "Moonside Collective":

"@Jayce is the handcuffed guy somnium????"

I read the message out quietly before responding. "Uh, I don't know if I can respond that yet. From the logs he gave us, it sounds like it..." Eventually, the handcuffed person stopped digging, sort of looking at the taller dude for approval. I quickly shut my mouth while I watched the tall man approach the hole in the ground, bent over, and picked up a sort of weird looking box. While he was observing the box, however, the shorter dude threw something else in the whole behind his back, before quickly putting the dirt back into the hole.

"Okay... bad news, looks like we lost an artifact. That seemed important... but whoever that dude is, he just left us another note in there, so we may still get some answers. At least, I hope..." I tried to assure everyone I would still be going to the spot no matter what, but to be honest, by this point I have come to realize that maybe this supposed Alternate Reality was our reality... and that shook me to the core. Just what did we get ourselves into...?

The truck remained there for several more minutes while I read the chat the best I could. Someone accused me of faking the car model before another user shot him down instantly by showing them the actual car manufacturer's website selling the truck, named and all. Several people insisted I should have intervened, to which one person bravely retorted that I could have possibly gotten killed for that. Several other questions that I couldn't answer and a concerning amount of shitposts joking about the current situation I was in lined up my mentions in the server, along with a few private messages, and I took the time to answer as much as I could.

Eventually, however, I could hear the truck door open. I instantly looked up, any response I had at the moment thrown right out the window as I watched the two men enter the truck again and close their doors. They eventually stayed like this for one or two more minutes, which was just enough time for me to look at an incoming mention from someone named "CRICKET":

"@Jayce The X is gone. I just looked at AlphaMaps and the X where you are has disappeared from the map entirely. But the picture still says it was taken a year ago."

Attached to this message was an image confirming what was reported: the same spot I had looked at just days ago, but the black X that was fresh on the ground was completely removed from where it once was under the tree. Zooming in to the image even revealed that AlphaMaps still claims to have taken this image a year ago. My eyes widened as this... discrepancy settled in and really challenged everything we knew so far.

The server, as you can imagine, went completely insane over this discovery, with other users seeing for themselves that the defaced spot was no more. And as the truck turned on once again and the engine revved up to move the vehicle, all of us could only watch in confusion, anger, and maybe even a bit of horror as the truck finally moved away from its spot, turning back around on the intersection and continuing forward in its path, and taking with it that box that we were so close to looting for ourselves. Whatever this "game" was to us before... it just got incredibly serious.

Once I could no longer hear the truck's engine, I very quickly stepped out of the weeds I used for cover and ran as fast as I could to the intersection, keeping my phone in my hand along the way before finally fixing it inside my fanny pack once I was close. There was no time to think, I had to act fast, in case they wanted to show their face again. Thankfully, they left their shovel off to the side...

Once I got to underneath the tree, I could see it: in black spray paint, an X was crossed on the ground. After it got dug up recently, the cross was completely unrecognizable, but I knew better. Taking the shovel and practically throwing it at the ground in a frenzy, I re-excavated the spot, my breath growing heavy as I moved around the dirt. Eventually I found what I was looking for: a white, folded up piece of paper, and an all-black business card of sorts. I snatched both items, quickly stuffed them in my pocket, and just threw whatever dirt was on hand back into the hole before tossing the shovel away again and making a mad dash back to the inn.

"I found two things! It's... it's a paper and a-- oof... a business card! I'll show it in the car!" I shouted to my phone, once again buzzing with mentions while I quickly sprinted back to the inn driveway. As soon as I was in, I unlocked my car and leapt inside, still extremely worried I was in danger. My car engine sparked to life once I jammed the keys in, and I immediately reversed back on the driveway. I stepped on the gas, and after a short delay, the car moved at full speed out the driveway... and going back home.

---

I stopped at a gas station to fill up my car, and during that time I finally got the chance to send the two things I got from the place. One was a standard A4 piece of paper with a lot of code in it and a small note that read, "This is just the beginning of our future." The other was the business card that the handcuffed man tossed in before he left. It was black on both sides, one side having the blinking eye from the very first puzzle we got and the other side containing a very simple message: "I'VE LOST CONTROL"

On the way home, most of the server managed to decode the random string of letters and numbers on the piece of paper. It appeared to be a website of sorts, but it was completely inaccessible when they tried to access it. As for the business card, nothing really happened with it, but some speculated that this could mean that the handcuffed man was Somnium, but he now no longer has access to his accounts. During a small debate on what to actually do with Somnium if that was the case, he finally decided to speak up from his bot account just one single word: "listen"

Night fell, and by the time I arrived home and opened the computer it was nearly 9PM. I reviewed what little evidence we had now and tried to access the site myself to no avail. It seemed like we would be at a dead end once again, unless we found stuff in the past puzzles that happen to fit. I was ready to just turn myself in for the night and forget this whole thing even happened... and then I took a glance at the business card.

I spun it around a few times, hoping that the answer could just manifest itself in front of me. Being honest? Even though this has proved itself to be a scary experience, it's somehow made it that much more exciting. My personal investment in this didn't reach that far before this little excursion, but now I was... actually looking forward to the next piece of the puzzle. Of course, that's what I've wanted all along, wasn't it? I felt like I was leading a life with no direction, and now look at me, staring at a dumb piece of cardboard hoping it could give me the answer.

...and then I saw a microSD slot on the side.

I leapt out of bed and scrambled through my messy desk to find the adaptor I needed. Carefully removing the storage unit from the card, I immediately slotted it into the adaptor and connected it to my computer. The computer took its time to read the contents of the SD card, but once it figured it out, it simply displayed the file explorer with a single text file labelled "READ_ME". I nervously double clicked on it, and the notepad faded in, with a small bit of text in it:

"If you are seeing this, it is almost too late."

"My privacy has been compromised and all possible ways to communicate with you have been removed from me. Therefore, I must offer you the truth: I am not Somnium. This name was given to a sentient AI that I had been working on. It was my life's passion, my magnum opus, until officials caught wind of this and attempted seizing it for themselves. Unfortunately, by the nature of you reading this note, they are close to succeeding."

"Somnium, as you know it in the chats I have frequented, is no longer under my command. You are advised to remove all of my accounts from your servers, as whatever message it spits out now is not me. Do not attempt to contact Somnium in any way, as you will be bringing my captors that much closer to finding my AI."

"There is only one place I hid my work. I unfortunately cannot send you the link directly. I had previously hid a box full of assorted riddles that could grant you access to the website, but this has been stolen from the rendezvous point. You will instead need to access the website hidden within the paper note through a backdoor that is contained within this text file. I know you can do it."

"Please stay safe. You are treading dangerous waters from this point forward, and I cannot help you now. Good luck."

...holy shit. Where to even begin...

I decided to start by bringing up the website again. It once again spit out an error, telling me that the site doesn't exist. Knowing now that it was just a ruse, I then waved around the text file, thinking of a rather strange idea that almost felt like instinct. I threw the text file into the browser, expecting nothing to come out of it... and I was right. Nothing happened on the surface, and I almost cursed myself for having such an idiotic idea, except... something did change. I couldn't see it, but I definitely felt like I had budged something out of position.

I threw the note into the browser again, and nothing happened again. This time, though, the error code seemed to flicker once I let go of the file, as if it wanted to tell me something. Out of curiosity, I checked the text file's properties and-- oh, that isn't good. My eyes widened as I saw a nearly endless number of useless properties. Each of these nonsensical properties came paired with a value, a word of the English dictionary. I could have sworn there were like a hundred of these...

"Listen..." I muttered to myself. In that moment, I spotted what looked to be the word "listens", and my head started coming up with ideas again... So I threw the text file into my browser once more. This time, the error code finally gave me something different, now telling me the page couldn't load due to error "PASSWORD_INCORRECT". Seems like I was getting somewhere with this, so that's what I continued to do, just throwing the .txt inside my browser over and over, observing the error code flicker like crazy with no changes. I was about to give up until I very briefly caught a different word blink in the error code area: "transparent".

I looked through the list of values again, and quickly found the text file had, indeed, the word I was looking for. So now, I had two words... how many times did I need to do this...?

Blip. Looks like I had Wyvern running on my computer. As soon as I entered deep thought, the computer gave me a notification from CRICKET again.

CRICKET (Somnium Simp Server, #solving)
"@Jayce Did you read through the stuff already? I think I found something else."

I suppose I should be careful about what I send in the server, considering the watchful eye of the law was most definitely seeing what we were doing. Unfortunately, I wasn't a mod and couldn't boot Somnium out, and all the people that could were asleep at the moment. Thankfully, most discussion had died out, so I hopped in and made my presence known in the chat.

Jayce: @CRICKET ye
CRICKET: I looked back through some past riddles and finally managed to piece together the whole alphabet Somnium uses.
CRICKET: This has allowed me to solve that one long string of letters we got from the third puzzle.
CRICKET: Do you want to see it now? I think you are still tired from today.

Realizing this was now my chance to obscure information from whoever was controlling Somnium's Wyvern profile, I took the opportunity:

Jayce: actually send me in dm
Jayce: please don't ask here
CRICKET: Uh, okay?

He would respond a few minutes later with a lot of photo evidence and the completed Somnium alphabet. It's incredible how we could still make up weird shit like this and have it look cool, too...

CRICKET: And so with this, we have the answer to the random lines on the side of the main puzzle.
CRICKET: They read, "The quiet leaf listens to the transparent branch."
jayceSTAYSbass: oh wow
CRICKET: By the way, why did you ask to do this in private?
jayceSTAYSbass: OH RIGHT
jayceSTAYSbass: okay so like
jayceSTAYSbass: this is kinda urgent but if you can
jayceSTAYSbass: get somnium out of our server and rhythm circle
jayceSTAYSbass: like, right now
jayceSTAYSbass: the business card was hiding an sd card inside and I got this text file
jayceSTAYSbass: [READ_ME.txt, 3.7kb]
jayceSTAYSbass: basically, what everyone's been thinking
jayceSTAYSbass: somnium isn't somnium anymore and whoever is controlling his phone now can see us
CRICKET: Oh. That is bad.
CRICKET: Uh, I will try to call the admin personally. I have his phone number.
jayceSTAYSbass: great!

That was getting sorted out, finally... And to think that I had no intention of even intervening in this once upon a time.

CRICKET: There are a lot of nonsense properties in this text file.
CRICKET: This is normally impossible to do. GlassTech programmed it so that you cannot add properties to .txt or .rtf files, just delete them.
jayceSTAYSbass: yeah about that
jayceSTAYSbass: just now realizing that the solution you gave me is actually the solution to this
CRICKET: What do you mean?
jayceSTAYSbass: try throwing the file I gave you into the website you guys found
jayceSTAYSbass: multiple times, if you will

A brief moment of silence followed, before CRICKET came back.

CRICKET: The error code changed!?
CRICKET: PASSWORD_INCORRECT.
jayceSTAYSbass: the values are all english words
jayceSTAYSbass: so perhaps
jayceSTAYSbass: if i just have the file contain only the values from the solution you gave me
jayceSTAYSbass: something happens????
CRICKET: You should give it a go.
CRICKET: Again, the solution was, "The quiet leaf listens to the transparent branch."

I frantically removed values from the text document, being very careful not to accidentally erase a word I needed, otherwise I had to start over. A bit of finicking later, and I would click and drag the now "edited" readme into the website.

"Hope this works..." I hovered my mouse over the browser and let go of the mouse button. A few seconds would pass by with nothing happening... and then the browser turned pitch black. A single, monochrome eye would emerge from the darkness, closed at first, and then slowly opening itself up. And then, a robotic female voice, accompanied by floating text subtitles just below the eye, resonated through my computer speakers:

"Hello, user Jayce. It appears you have successfully awoken me via a distress signal. This means my creator is in grave danger."

I stayed silent. In the background, I received a ping from a random dude informing me that "Somnium" was just banned from the server. With no government eyes on us now, I immediately entered the server voice chat again, this time sharing my computer screen. Everyone who was there at the moment immediately flocked to the call as I personally muted everyone on my end.

"Sorry for being kinda hush-hush about this. I'll explain later." As more and more people woke up and entered the call and I kept muting them all out, the AI -- or rather, the real Somnium -- gave us all a warning:

"Please gather as many hands as you possibly can. The path ahead is dangerous. There is no telling what will happen from this point forward, and I can only guide you so much. Do you understand?"

There were no prompts in front of me... I guess I have to use my voice for this.

"Uh, yes. I do."

"I detect a bit of hesitation in your voice." Oh great, it talks back, too. "Please remain calm, and the safety of my creator and myself will remain intact."

"I-- Yes, of course! Sorry about that." I tried to laugh it off, but it was kinda difficult. I was talking to an actual machine, after all.

"There is no need to apologize. You are doing well so far, you and everyone in the Somnium Simp Server."

...did it really just read that out loud.

"Now then..."

Almost everyone in the server was in the call now, their little silenced bubbles flickering in and out. In that moment, I understood that this would be one wild fucking ride we were gonna go through... and I couldn't ask for anything better.

"...shall we begin?"