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How to Use Console Commands

Prologue

On the day the Black Halo encircles the sun,

A Dark Lord will rise to doom us all.

Humanity's works shall be undone.

Corruption will herald mankind's fall.

On the day the Black Halo encircles the sun,

Readers will die and their books will burn.

Listeners will face their fate in turn.

Speakers' to the world will return

On the day the Black Halo encircles the sun.

- Hymn of the Black Halo

******

When Payton Rendshaw came home after a long day at the office, he hadn’t expected to do anything special. Shuffle into his small, townhouse, kick off his painful work shoes, drape his bland, grey coat on the rack and collapse onto the couch for a few minutes before we went about cooking dinner. This evening’s meal, naturally, would be something preprepared and easily thrown into the microwave. Frugality was one of Payton's best qualities - a reason why he was an accountant for a small local business - so he tended to cook big meals on weekends, package them up for the week ahead and just reheat them when he got hungry. It was how he kept his relatively lean frame even though he was in his mid-thirties.

Mid-thirties, he thought blithely as he began cooking the lasagna that he had prepared on Sunday. Thirty-Seven years old. Decent job. Decent mortgage. Recent model car. Alone.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes, Payton had everything he could ever want. Sure he didn't have a partner to call his own but he wasn't in any rush to get into any relationships. In these modern times, there was such a high rate of divorce that he was more than happy to attend the company mixers, flirt a little and have some fun without truly committing to anything. There was no strong desire to start a family or marry. That could all come later when his paternal instincts kicked in.

Or do you have to have a kid first before those kick in?

He ate his lasagna but couldn't finish it when he realized the center was still very much cold. No one else was going to eat it and he was satisfied with his meal so he just packed it up, put it in the fridge and went about cleaning up. Being a college-educated man with a decent job left him wanting for little in the world but that also meant that by the time everything he had to do was done, he didn't have much to do in his free time.

What to do tonight I wonder...?

It was only eight in the evening. There was nothing to gain from going to sleep so early. The only thing he could think of doing was parking himself in front of his desktop and browsing around for anything even remotely interesting.

For what felt like the hundredth time this day alone, he checked his emails. There wasn't anything new...

... except for one email from an online friend.

"Dude! You gotta check out this link! It’s definitely your thing!"

Then came a URL that he clearly didn't recognize. Any normal person would have immediately realised that their friend’s account had just been hacked and used to send out spam. Payton didn’t really know why he did what he did next. Maybe it was because he knew said friend was an IT specialist and would never let their account get hacked so this could be legitimate. Or perhaps it was because he was genuinely curious. Then again, maybe he was just looking for something to do and was confident in his anti-virus.

Whatever the case, Payton clicked the link.

His web browser immediately opened and he was met with a black screen. The anti-virus didn't start screaming at him so he suspected it was safe. Text began streaming across the screen in blocky font reminiscent of old word processors before resolutions were measured in thousands of pixels.

“On the day the Black Halo encircles the sun,

A Dark Lord will rise to doom us all.

Humanity's works shall be undone.

Corruption will herald mankind's fall.

On the day the Black Halo encircles the sun,

Readers will die and their books will burn.

Listeners will face their fate in turn.

Speakers to the world will return

On the day the Black Halo encircles the sun.

_ _

- Hymn of the Black Halo”

_ _

The text lingered for a moment before vanishing. Then another paragraph appeared followed by a command prompt.

"You find yourself in a dark room with a single door as an exit. In front of you are three pedestals. On one sits a sword and shield. In the other a bow and arrow. In the third, a book. Which do you choose?"

Payton's expression brightened slightly. "Holy shit," he mumbled. "Is this...? Is this a text-based adventure?"

From a young age, he had loved these sorts of games. Point-and-click games or choose-your-own adventures were similarly entertaining. His friend clearly knew him well. Mind already churning away, he was already typing the command to 'choose the sword and shield' as he preferred to start off with the warrior archetype before sub-classing into other specialties but stopped in mid-sentence.

Unlike other text-based games, there was no option to pick a number that corresponded to an option. It was encouraging him to type in the actual command.

There's a reason for that.

Payton deleted his half-finished command and instead typed, 'Take them all' and hit the 'Enter' key.

To his surprise, it worked.

"You take all the items, shouldering the shield and bow, wielding the sword in one hand and the book in the other. You proceed towards the door. It is locked. What do you do?"

Clearly this game rewarded creativity. Finding a spark of interest, Payton considered his options for a moment. He could unlock the door, charge right through or peek through the keyhole. Using his weapons would likely damage or outright break them. Again, the lateral thinking part of his brain kicked in and he typed 'Knock on door'.

"You knock on the door. It creaks almost as if it is smiling and says, 'My, how polite you are. Go on through'. It swings open revealing a dark hallway beyond. You proceed into the darkness, unable to see. What do you do?"

"Ha!" Payton exclaimed. Tempting as it was to reload his save and go back to see what other options he could take, he decided to proceed with his current path. "How to deal with darkness..." he mused. He snapped his fingers. "Ah, I know. 'I make friends with the Darkness'."

"The darkness is surprised by your forwardness and blushes - though you cannot see it - in embarrassment. It mentions that no one has ever walked into it and deigned to talk to it. In a flurry, it recedes, utterly flustered by your friendly demeanor and even squealing a little in delight. With its departure, there is a broad chamber revealed where a tremendous beast of unspeakable horror awaits you, blocking the only exit. The creature immediately lunges at you, its limbs of insanity-inducing terror threatening to end your life. What do you do?"

"I never knew the darkness was a timid little anime girl," Payton laughed softly. Amused by how his out-of-the-box thinking as getting him, he decided to play further to his strengths and typed in his next command. "I pull down my pants, offer my rear to the unspeakable horror and plead him to 'penetrate me with his inconceivable penis and drive me mad with ecstasy'."

"The eldritch horror stopped in its tracks and stares at you with its maddening eyes. It says, 'You know, I've lived since the dawn of time and never once have I fucked or been fucked? Goddamnit. Even Cthulu is a virgin. I'd love to one-up him. Fuck it! Let's get dirty!'. You two proceed to make indescribable love to one another while the darkness watches on from the corner writhing in its own self-pleasure. The terror-from-beyond-the-starts passes out in satisfaction leaving you slimy but otherwise unharmed.

"You proceed towards the exit. Is this how you wish to leave?"

Payton shook his head, admitting that this was indeed a fun little distraction but it was time to move on.

He typed 'Y-E-S' then hit 'Enter.'

The last words he saw on screen were, 'Welcome to Lexcia'.

Everything went black.