A much bigger case

Mr. Wheel literally just gave me the original SIMULACRA. And now just a few short days later, he gives me fucking SIMULACRA 3. Like seriously what the hell did I do to deserve this? I have a shit load more games I could play but Mr. Wheel decides he thinks its funny for me to shit my pants. BUT... it's the game he gave me. And it's the game I'll play.

The game starts with a brief cutscene of little pop-outs hovering over a phone. Items, Stories, Companies, etc. Innocent... until then it starts showing missing people... a lot... of missing people... odd but... surely they're not all in the same time period right? Once again just like the other 2 games, this takes place primarily on a phone. This time the phone belonging to a guy... not a girl... no not this time. A DUDE named Paul. Seems like we're in a chat with a woman named Ruby who will be assisting us with this case. Ruby is a reporter for the Stonecreek Citizen. So you know how I wished all those missing people reports were all in separate times? Yeah no. Unfortunately they're happening all at once. Cool. Seems like it's been happening for a short while now. And hasn't been stopping. No rhyme or reason why these folks are disappearing. Paul Castillo, one of our only hopes as to figuring out why the hell this is happening. Crazy dude... but reliable. He's the once who sent Ruby the phone I am using which... well... then got sent to me! I am given a chance to look through the phone. It's very... bare... just some basic images that look stupid stock. Scenery, Buildings, Wildlife, etc. The more important thing here is the one and only video of Paul who at this point seems to be aware of the issues going on at the moment. He takes a moment to teach us how to use the phone. The contents inside it may be bare and empty. But we can work on restoring vital information using a program called Atlas. Crucial information is tucked away under gray pins on a map. And to unlock said pins and info, I need to find notes as I dig through the phone. Thankfully finding notes is pretty easy. All I need to do is wait until a search icon is placed on the bottom of my screen. Once I get the note, I can put it into the correct pin on the map which in turn will recover certain data to the phone. This very video itself being a note. Prior to putting any info into Atlas... yeah big fucking emphasis on this phone being empty. There's no contacts besides Ruby, only 1 email from Mira Tech HR. Seems like the city of Stonecreek has been on lock down. But Mira Tech employees are exempt from it. Given that they provide proper passes.

In the Atlas app, I can see the map, my notes, and a live feed too. Yes that's what you need in this kind of app. A fucking hell hole social platform. Next up, I check up our old friend Surfer! The Stonecreek Citizen seemingly being the only page I can access at the moment. Just you every day news article hub. The first article is about a group of protestors at a cutting ceremony. I guess this group of individuals was pissed off about a newly renovated space in the city. Designed to make it a "destination location". Like a one size fits all if you get what I mean... you probably don't. From how I understand the article, this space is basically supposed to have a little bit of everything so that people couldn't possibly leave. But I guess the biggest issue is that this once historical landmark once filled with culture of once was has become too modernized and suppressing of what once was. The next article is a hell of a lot more depressing. Missing person, Josie Barton. Just an innocent day of playing with friends turning into a trip to the bathroom and never coming back. Her poor parents must be losing sleep just thinking about what could've happened to her. There are a couple phone numbers I find. While I try calling them, neither pick up. Those numbers might be just for show. For now, I show Ruby the Atlas intro video. She basically summarizes it for me. She mentions that the Citizen news page could have some vital information. I read the final article. This one shows the hidden horrors of Stonecreek. Oh a happy fun time commercial big project where everyone can enjoy themselves? NOPE! Poverty and homelessness are off the charts. Despite Mayor Richardson denying ever such issues. Sounds like the biggest issue is that the renovated area was made for only people with such high income to live in. While the rest have to live out on the streets. So that was all the articles at the moment... but no notes? Well what now? Well... there is one more thing I can click on. A tip button. Of all things this gives me a fucking note. I can use this to restore the "Rally the Voices" pin on the map. Doing so unlocks a shit load of data on the phone including photos, videos, contacts, emails, chats, etc.

There's also new feed posts for the Stonecreek Citizen Headquarters. Just like the real world which we know and just oh so love and by love I mean fucking loathe, there's mixed reactions on the state of the city. Looking through the contacts and holy shit there's a lot of them. There's one that has a not generic icon with it. That being a girl named Elise. Though at the moment, she is unreachable. But I can see text messages with her. Seems like she too is victim to these missing persons. Not herself is missing but her son had gone missing. I can also read different chat longs from Ruby. Seems like at least one of them is between her and Paul. As for the photos, there's another missing person flier, a little mural, a really disturbing spray paint of a target with a realistic eye in the middle, and there's a video from Paul seemingly and very riskingly following an individual in a warehouse. Reported missing days ago. The dude being followed by Paul... we'll name Mark for now... is just... way too casually strolling through this house. It actually gave me Mandela Catalogue vibes. Hell I even pulled up one of the more popular videos from that series about the alternate. Because the way Mark was acting felt very... alternate like. Especially at the end when Mark is seen standing in front of a door... and this... black goop like substance begins just... growing around him. Mark then turns around and starts chasing after Paul. And you better believe Paul was fucking booking it. This video here is another note. 2 more emails have been unlocked. One being from a Maria. Seeming to provide Paul with a story of her own about some weird phenomena inside her very own. Like weird carvings and toys in places they shouldn't be. She also mentions this... Beldam individual... now what the fuck is a Beldam? The other email is an invite to a Cloud Square protest. About the newly renovated space. I speak again with Ruby and show her that creepy warehouse video I watched. Ruby mentions a blog Paul had been working on... hey like me! Though here, looks like Paul's blog website was shut down for... "suspicious activity". Unless he was using the blog to sell drugs, I can't see any reason why it would've been closed.

So this Beldam character... apparently she's a town witch who laid upon a curse after she had been killed by the townspeople. Oof. Seems like Ruby wants to venture out. While I try to convince her to not go, Ruby wants to anyway. She's a risk taker. So now I have to figure out how the hell I get into Paul's blog. Finding his email address is no issue. But then after that I seem to get a little stumped. A mark left on Abernathy Farms. And it's like one of those 3 by 3 pattern line phone lock thingies. What's the correct line? To hell if I know. The Atlas pinpoints an Abernathy Farms but doesn't seem to have anything useful that i need... or at least... so i thought. I thought maybe I check the feed about the farms? While some of the posts about it are... disturbing... nothing about a mark or pattern or anything I can find. I end up searching all around and trying to brute force the notes I have into the other gray pins on the map but to no luck. But then suddenly... it's like it fucking hits me. On the map under the pinpoint of the farms are 5 dots to which look like could be drawn as a line on a 3 by 3 grid. I try putting that pattern in and holy fuck it worked. And just when you thought I was going to fucking look it up. Eat shit internet. The 2nd security question is much easier. All I have to do is select the images that were related to Beldam sightings around Stonecreek which I got on my first fucking try. Once again. Eat shit internet. And with that... we're in the blog. HUZZAH! In it is 5 posts. The Legend of the Beldam, Treasure at Thrasher Lake, Beware the Antler Beast, Blessings of the Elm, and DRAFT: Strange Symbols. Before I check out the blog articles, I am... almost forced back into the text messages with Ruby where I listen to a voice recording from her. Is what she says important? Uh... not really? She just wants to make a group name for the missing people like... seriously bruh? There's also a voice recording from Paul. Symbol Speculations. Talking about the culture of the town and the disappearing people most importantly. Talking about the possibility about it being... aliens... (cue x-files theme). XD! Either that or... the Beldam herself. Is she taking these people? Though Paul claims that any symbols seen were never connected to her.

There's one more short video of Paul seemingly going through some documents. Nothing too exciting until he seems to find something that... excites him? Or at least gets his curiosity going enough to the point where he runs down his stairs and... well that's that for the video. I go back to Paul's blog. Starting with the legend of the Beldam herself. Seems like she was quite the mysterious figure. But a generous one. She'd give the citizens of Stonecreek stuff like seeds in return that she gets a place. Until... townsfolks started getting sick and saw the Beldem in their dreams. So the people drowned her in the lake. But just before she passed, she put a wicked curse on the town... spooky. Fuck around and find out right? Treasure at Thrasher Lake is next. The resting place of the Beldam. She might be dead... but she'll still drag in visitors. They made her drown? She'll make them feel her pain. Beware the Antler Beast. Created by none other than the Beldam. With horribly fucked up horns. One popular victim... Grif Wilson who... I don't know if he escaped prison or was released to venture out into the woods. I want to probably assume he escaped because there was a search for him. But all they found was what he had been carrying on him. Including a letter to his wife. Documenting the horrors he went through during his trip in these woods. And warning her... under no circumstance shall she visit them herself. Sounds like the Beldam was really pissed about the people drowning her. One more main blog. Blessings of the Elm. Not as dark of a blog. More about the Elm beads, a rare flower native to Stonecreek. People believed these things contained a magic that gave people good luck or kept them safe and comfortable. Despite areas dedicated to these things being hit with tragedy. Like murders and fires. And yet people still believe there's a magic that is held within them... I mean who's to say that all magic was good magic? Finally... the last blog, Strange Symbols... isn't really a blog. But more so a message to Ruby. As if the public wasn't meant to see this one. Something about looking for this... Persephone. And there's a file available to download. Another video from Paul.

Paul looks understandably distressed about the increasing disappearances. He also shows what looks like what he saw when digging through those documents. A small little card with... weird symbols on it. Funnily enough, the moment he shows the card, the wall behind me begins to suddenly grow symbols until the video takes up the whole screen. Paul talks about the possibility of there being a connection between the disappearances and the symbols. And how said symbols are appearing all over the place. And that more appear as more people disappear. Paul will need to do more digging... but he feels all won't be well for a while. This video here is another note. So I'm about to talk about this new video with Ruby when... the phone wallpaper... I fucking knew it... the lights in the hallway shut off one by one... until the door at the end just closes... and very quickly it goes back to normal... but I fucking knew that wallpaper wasn't normal in any way, shape, or form... also I'm sorry but what sick person has that kind of wallpaper of a creepy ass hallway? I try the new note with the gray pins on the map. To no luck. So I just continue the talk with Ruby. This is where the game saves so this is a good place to stop for now. But this story is very intriguing. What is the best way to lift the Beldam's curse? If there is a way? What sacrifice must be made? If there's one thing for sure I know...

It's that I will find a way to change this fucking phone wallpaper.